Full text of "Transformations"

SPRING 20 





A journal of People and Change 




TRANSFORMATIONS • VOLUME 07 • NUMBER 1 • SPRING 2011 



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DEPARTMENTS 

2 Starting Point 

3 Letters 

4 Internationalism at WPI 

A message from President Berkey. 

5 Campus Buzz 

Research heats up the streets; students 
go to Guatemala; women's place 
ranked high at WPI. 

8 Inside WPI 

A first for WPI: three new academic 
deans arrived this year to help lead 
the campus forward. 

IO Explorations 

Learn to play the guitar like a rock star, 
courtesy of student-designed software. 

34 Class Notes 
46 Obituaries 

52 Time Capsule 

There's a new kid in town. 



FEATURES 



12 Collaborations and Community 

A Q&A with President Berkey on WPI's 
relationship with China. 

l6 China's Building Boom 

Explosive growth in China's built 
environment is causing a concomitant 
rise in fire safety considerations. 

20 Made in China 

Alumni who have worked in China 
talk about the promise, the trade-offs, 
and the future. 

22 Looking Back to Look Forward 

Historian Jennifer Rudolph's research 
demonstrates that Chinese modernity 
continues to baffle those who view it 
solely in Western terms. 

2o Uncensored 

China is opening up to the electronic 
age, but its own electronic age. Google, 
Facebook, and other Western networking 
sites are banned. 

30 Culture Shock 

Chinese students on the WPI campus talk 
about the joys and the confusions of trying 
to understand and live an American life. 



Opposite: The statue of Zheng Chenggong, 
perched on Gulangyu Island off China's 
southeast coast, represents China's claim to 
Taiwan (see "The Zelig of Taiwan," page 27). 

Cover: Photograph by Patrick O'Connor. 







TARTING POINT 



'"Begin at the beginning/ the King said 
gravely and go on till you come to 
the end; then stop.'" 

— Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland 







A JOURNAL Of PEOPLE AND CHANGE 



In my mind, there are scientists and engineers, teachers, doctors, 
and humanitarians. There are inventors and entrepreneurs. (There 
are many, many inventors and entrepreneurs.) There are CEOs, pres- 
idents, and vice presidents. There are environmentalists. There are 
gamers. An architect, a pastor, a city councilor, and an alpaca farmer. 

Actually, there are precisely two alpaca farmers. 

Who, you may ask, are these people? They are WPI. More 
specifically, they are some of the stories that have occupied the pages 
of this magazine over the last five and a half years. And they are the 
people I think about more often than you'd imagine. 

Since 2005, when I became editor of Transformations, WPI 
alumni have continued to surprise and impress me. And, in fact, 
my hope for every issue of this magazine has been that these stories 
would surprise and impress you, too. In all of these stories and all of 
these alumni, I continue to be struck by how fabulous and necessary 
it is that a university rooted in science and engineering would produce 
such a wide diversity of alumni whose work is both interesting and 
important. 

Certainly this magazine, which centers on China, is no different. 
You have only to look through these pages to see the wide variety of 
WPI alumni — and faculty and students — whose work and interests 
are linked to the growing superpower. 

By the time this issue of Transformations lands in your mailbox, 
I will have left WPI for another opportunity at another university. 
It is a bittersweet moment, as I have so enjoyed, perhaps more than 
I can express here, being editor of this magazine since 2005. In the 
issues since then, on this very page, I have regaled stories of my 
own family — my husband, my parents, my late Bubbe, and my 
now-86-year-old Zaide. And so in keeping with that same unofficial 
tradition, I'll share one of my favorite stories about my sister, Lany. 

Several years ago, Lany, then in her 20s, had the opportunity 
to meet Al Gore at a book signing for An Inconvenient Truth. 
She turned to him and, without the least bit of irony or sarcasm, 
instructed the former vice president: "Keep on keepin' on, Sir." 

To WPI, I wish you the same. 

As always, thanks for reading. 
Charna Mamlok Westervelt, Editor 



Rachel Morton 
Interim Editor 

Sandra King 

Interim Vice President for Marketing 

and Communications 

Joan Killough-Miller 
Alumni News Editor 

Peggy Isaacson 

Graphic Designer and Copy Editor 

Dianne Vanacore 

Print Production Coordinator 

Judith Jaeger 

Director of Development Publications 

Michael W. Dorsey 

Director of Research Communications 




Diverse views presented in this magazine do not necessarily 
reflect the opinions of the editor or official WPI policies. 
Address correspondence to the Editor, Transformations, 
WPI, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280. 
Phone: 508-831-6715; Fax: 508-831-5820. 

Transformations (ISSN 1 538-5094) is published quarterly by 
the Division of Marketing and Communications for the WPI 
Alumni Association. Printed in USA by Dynagraf. 

Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, Mass., and at additional 
mailing offices. Postmaster: please send address changes to address 
above. Entire contents © 201 1, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 




2 Transformations \ Spring 2011 



:: LETTERS 



There Was Only One "van A" 

With great sadness, I read in Transformations [Summer 2010] 
of the passing of mathematics professor John van Alstyne. In 
short, he was the best and the kindest professor who crossed 
my path. 

I remember taking a calculus class from him and earning 
a grade of B. At face value that was not unusual, as I earned a 
B in each of four required base mathematics courses. Having 
been essentially a straight-A student in high school, I found 
college harder and my mathematics assignments and exami- 
nations to consistently be either a C or B — maybe an occa- 
sional A. But the grade of B I earned from Professor John 
van Alstyne was my most gratifying result in my entire time 
at WPI in any course. 

Professor John van Alstyne had a uniquely strong, 
positive approach to motivating each and every student in 
his classroom. In his class he would demonstrate some of 
the homework problems on the board, all from his head, 
on the spot. Incredibly gifted man. More important, with 
each problem, he gave a physical sense, e.g., when the 
problem asked one to plot a given equation, he gave a 
meaning. In one case he said, "Imagine holding a handker- 
chief at each corner, then pull two opposite corners upward, 
and the other two downward." That is how I learned about 
the hyperbolic paraboloid! Decades later, I used the same 
analogy in teaching Theory of Shell Structures to my grad- 
uate students. 

When we took written examinations in his class, Pro- 
fessor van Alstyne would always say, "When the bell rings, 
if you have no class coming just keep working and pass it in 
when you are satisfied you are done. If you do have a class, 
give me your exam papers and return to my office when your 




next class is over, and then 
continue working on it, 
until you are satisfied you 
are done." I cannot imagine 
anyone cruel enough to 
have taken advantage of his 
usual offer. Cheat yourself, 
dishonor him — never. 

Before the final examination for his course, I visited 
Professor van Alstyne and explained my plight — always 
working hard, very hard; always getting a B in math. I asked 
for advice on how to prepare for his final exam. His advice: 
"Don't put so much stress on yourself. It's just part of life. 
It's better to relax and be rested. Instead, put aside your book 
and notes and just go see a movie the night before the exami- 
nation." So I did. Result? I earned a final exam grade of a 
high A. A grade of a high A from Professor van Alstyne — 
from "van A"!!! 

Given a present-day perspective, I sense that a professor 
who gave extra time on an exam might be chastised. Some 
students might actually use the offer to cheat. Perhaps his 
advising this student to skip studying for the final exam and 
take in a movie would be seen as inappropriate by some 
colleagues. I can only say, that is why there was only one 
"van A." The lifelong lesson is to work earnestly, "until you 
are satisfied you are done." That has been the essence of 
my career as a professor and researcher. 

I am sad he is gone, but very thankful to have learned 
so much from him. I had many very good teachers and several 
very fine teachers at WPI. Professor John van Alstyne stands 
out as the very, very finest of them all. 

Richard M. Gutkowski PhD, PE 

Emeritus Professor 

Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering 

Colorado State University 



Transformations \ Spring 20 1 1 3 



A message from President Berkey 

internationalism at WPI 

Both WPI's enrollment of international students and our activities 
abroad are increasing rapidly, so it is fitting this issue of Transfor- 
mations follows an international theme. There is a special focus on 
China, now the world's second-largest economy, and the setting 
for a recent visit by a delegation from WPI that Cathy and I had 
the pleasure of leading. My interview with Transformations about 
this trip is included in this issue. 

More than half of our undergraduates complete IQP, MQP, or 
humanities and arts projects at one or more of our 26 international 
project centers. While the project teams working in the African 
centers in Namibia and Cape Town are frequent winners of the 
President's IQP Awards, there is a special characteristic of the 
teams working in Thailand and in China. There, our WPI students 
are paired on the project teams with students from the host 
countries. I cannot imagine a more intensely rewarding intercultural 
experience than working shoulder to shoulder with global team- 
mates on hard, important problems in the developing world. 

Elsewhere, the Venice project center has been operating for more 
than a quarter century, and several of the project themes, such as 
the impact of modernization on the canals and the preservation 
of public art, are well known among the Venetians as passionate, 
ongoing concerns of WPI students. Indeed, the Global Perspective 
Program has brought an exciting and important dimension to the 
WPI Plan that even its founders could not have imagined. 

Here on campus our international students add a rich dimension of 
diversity to campus life, both to our academic programs and in the 
leadership and cultural variety in co-curricular organizations and 
activities. They help WPI see itself from a broadly international 
perspective. At the same time they embrace WPI's traditions and 
values, and go on to carry our name and reputation proudly 
throughout the world as WPI alumni. 




professional admissions 
staff. Knowing that their 
recruiter will also be 
their advisor is a much- 
appreciated factor in 
many students' assess- 
ments of WPI. 

Another point of empha- 
sis was the importance 
of food to our interna- 
tional students. Many 
are vegetarians, and 
most long for the foods 
of their homelands. 
This is why many inter- 
national students prefer to live where they can cook for themselves, 
either on or off campus. Fortunately, ethnic food supplies are 
readily available in Worcester. As a follow-up to this conversation 
we will be working with our dining services to increase international 
components of our menus, and we will be mindful of the importance 
of access to cooking facilities in the further development of our 
residential facilities. 

Returning to the subject of China, we will be seeing increased 
activities both in our project centers in China and here on the WPI 
campus. We have been fortunate to have had strong leadership for 
the China Project Center complex from Professor Kevin Rong of the 
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Professor Amy Zeng 
of the School of Business. They have important networks of Chinese 
academic colleagues and associates in multinational corporations 
with whom they collaborate to develop opportunities for WPI project 
teams, but the logistics and other challenges of developing and ad- 
ministering these opportunities for WPI students cannot be overstated. 



I cannot imagine a more intensely rewarding intercultural experience 
than working shoulder to shoulder with global teammates on hard, 
important problems in the developing world. 



Recently I had the pleasure of hosting a group of international 
students for lunch. We had a wonderful conversation about their 
experiences in coming to know about WPI, deciding to enroll, 
and then joining our community. It requires no small amount of 
courage to leave family and friends behind for study in a foreign 
university, and the conversation helped me understand certain 
critical aspects of these students' experiences. 

One is the importance of face-to-face contact in the recruitment 
process with someone who inspires confidence in the proposed 
experience at WPI. In our case, we are most fortunate that Tom 
Thomsen, our director of international students and scholars, not 
only serves as a wonderful advisor to our international students on 
campus, but also travels abroad extensively to assist our excellent 



Here on campus, Professor Jennifer Rudolph, a Chinese historian in 
our Department of Humanities and Arts, is working with colleagues 
to expand our offerings in China studies. We will soon begin offer- 
ing instruction in Mandarin, for example, to expand our traditional 
foreign language offerings beyond German and Spanish. (Arabic 
will also soon be offered.) 

WPI's global perspective is one of the most distinctive and important 
aspects of our educational philosophy and our academic programs, 
both in the genuine engagement of our project teams in the real 
culture and problems of their host nations, and in the rich contribu- 
tions of our international students on our home campuses. As we 
say about so many aspects of WPI, there is much here to be proud 
of and thankful for. 



4 1 Transformations \ Spring 2011 



(((CAMPUS BUZZ 




Engineers Without Borders Address Basic Needs in Guatemala 



In Guachthu'uq, a rural community in Guatemala, families 
prepare food indoors over smoky wood fires. Burns and 
respiratory problems are common hazards. Although rainfall 
is quite high in the region, access to potable water during 
dry seasons is very limited. 

WPI's student chapter of Engineers Without Borders sent a 
team to Guachthu'uq last summer to collect preliminary data 
for projects to improve the safety and efficiency of cook 



stoves and to ensure reliable access to clean water. The students 
were accompanied by their advisor, Professor Creighton Peet, 
and alumnus and mentor Matthew Gamache '99, a water 
resource engineer. 

"I was touched by the vibrancy of the community and how 
they welcomed us into their homes and lives," said Gamache. 
"I hope that we can all give our best effort over the next 
four years to improve their access to clean air and water." 



Trans formatio ns \ Spring 2011 



(((CAMPUS BUZZ 



Repairing Hearts, 
Thread by Thread 



A heart attack damages heart tissue, which impairs the hearts 
ability to pump, which in turn puts the heart at risk for another 
attack. The heart needs to generate new, healthy tissue after an 
attack, but it lacks the mechanisms to do this. One way to accom- 
plish this repair may be for stem cells to be applied directly to 
the area. 

Glenn Gaudette's lab is focused on cardiac function, exploring ways 
to heal damaged heart muscle and developing cell-based methods 
to treat cardiac arrhythmias. He and his team have been working 
on a novel technology that a surgeon could use to deliver stem 
cells to targeted areas of the body to repair diseased or damaged 
tissue, including cardiac muscle damaged by a heart attack. 

The technique involves a suture about an inch long, bundled with 
biopolymer microthreads — each the width of a hair — seeded with 
stem cells. The team has shown that adult bone marrow-derived 
stem cells will multiply while attached to the threads and retain 
their ability to differentiate and grow into other cell types. 

Gaudette's team is already at work on the next steps in this line 
of research — testing the stem cell-seeded microthreads in a rat 
model to see if they can engraft into heart tissue and improve 
cardiac function. 

"We're pleased with the progress of this work," says Gaudette. 
"This technology is developing into a potentially powerful system 
for delivering therapeutic cells right to where they are needed, 
whether that's a damaged heart or other tissues." 




Heat and the Street 

If you've ever walked barefoot across a parking lot on a hot 
summer day, you know that blacktop is exceptionally good at 
soaking up the sun's warmth. Now, a research team has found a 
way to use that heat-soaking property for an alternative energy 
source. Professor Rajib Mallick and his colleagues are developing 
a solar collector that could turn roads and parking lots into 
alternative sources of electricity and hot water. 



"Think about it, we have 
more than three million miles 
of highways exposed to 
sunlight," Mallick was quoted 
as saying in a recent CNN 
story, "so if we can harness 
this energy, it's free, and 
you don't need photovoltaic 
solar cells." 




A faculty member in the Civil and Environmental Engineering 
Department, Mallick has developed and tested a prototype 
system that would embed tubes filled with fluid in pavement to 
collect heat from solar radiation. In winter, the hot fluid could be 
collected and then used to keep snow and ice from accumulating 
on roadways. In summer, the heat could be turned into electricity 
to cool buildings. Removing heat from roadways in warm weather 
or warm climates could also help reduce rutting, a condition that 
shortens the life of roads. 

"Asphalt has a lot of advantages as a solar collector," Mallick 
says. "For one, blacktop stays hot and could continue to generate 
energy after the sun goes down, unlike traditional solar-electric 
cells. In addition, there is already a massive acreage of installed 
roads and parking lots that could be retrofitted for energy 
generation, so there is no need to find additional land for 
solar farms." 



The Doing of Dumplings 

Spring festival is the biggest holiday in China. It's when 
children return home to be with their families and when friends 
and relatives visit. For Chinese students who study abroad, this 
can be a lonely time of year. 

So the CSA (Chinese Student Association) hosts a Spring 
Festival every year, where Chinese students gather with their 
friends to celebrate Chinese New Year. This year, the festival 
was all about making and eating dumplings. Students of all 
nationalities sat together at tables in the Campus Center, talking, 
laughing, and attempting to contain a pillow of stuffing within 
a dumpling wrap. 

Did the American students succeed at making a good dumpling? 
"Yes, definitely!" said Yutong Qin. "It's a great first experience 
for them, and the dumplings don't necessarily have to look or 
taste 'professional.'" 





Grammy for WPI 



Many of us watched the Grammys to see what craziness 
Lady GaGa was up to (arrived in an egg), whether Justin Bieber 
would sweep the awards (thankfully, no), or if Bob Dylan could 
still sing (well, yes, if you call that singing). But the WPI chorus, 
which also includes alumni and faculty, was interested in some- 
thing else. They had been invited last year by New Age musician 
Paul Winter to sing on a track of his latest album, "Miho: Journey 
to the Mountain." The album had been nominated as Best New 
Age Album. "Miho" won the Grammy that night, and the chorus 
was jubilant. 

WPI's relationship with Winter (who now has seven Grammys 
under his belt) dates back 10 years, when he first invited WPI 
choral director John Delorey and his students to perform in New 
York City at the Feast of St. Francis at the Cathedral of St. John 
the Divine. WPI's participation at the festival has become an 
annual tradition that is eagerly anticipated by both undergrad- 
uates and alumni. 



WPI Ranks High 

Q 11th best for helping women succeed 

in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics 

— Forbes.com 

Q In Top 5 Schools of Business 

providing the greatest opportunity for women 

— The Princeton Review 

Q Zth-highest starting median salary 

among engineering schools —PayScale, inc. 

Q 9th-highest mid-career median pay 

among engineering schools —PayScale, inc. 

Q In Top 10 for highest starting median salary 

among all colleges and universities —PayScale, inc. 



Transformations \ Spring 2011 7 



-EJ3-1NSIDE WPI By Maureen Deiana 



New Deans Lead the Way 




For the first time in its 146-year history, WPI leadership 
includes three academic deans whose charge is to help take the 
university to the next level. But whatever changes may come, 
the scientist, entrepreneur, and engineer who hold the inau- 
gural deanships are steadfast in their belief that the footings 
on which WPI is built are to be reinforced, not reinvented. 

Indeed, many defining WPI characteristics — experiential 
learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, use-inspired research, 
and a culture that equally fosters intellectual curiosity, scien- 
tific discovery, and artistic expression — were inspiration for 



these internationally acclaimed scholars to make WPI their 
academic home. 

Hailing from the National Science Foundation, Karen 
Oates, Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences, has seen 
just about every model for undergraduate education. "WPI is 
a special place," she says. "It appeals to me as a scientist that 
the curriculum is built true to evidence of how people learn 
and that it has continually evolved, particularly through the 
problem-based engagement of students in the community." 
A biochemist, Oates's love of science fuels her passions as a 



Selcuk Giiceri, Dean of Engineering, Karen Oates, Dean of Arts and Sciences, and Mark Rice, Dean of the School of Business 



8 Transformations \ Spring 2011 



researcher and educator. Grateful also to see beauty in every- 
thing — from a chemical experiment to an opera — she is 
compelled to pass on this appreciation as she works toward 
greater diversity of thought, ideas, and people on campus. 

Oates and her fellow academic deans, Selcuk Giiceri, 
Bernard Gordon Dean of Engineering, and Mark Rice, Dean 
of the School of Business, have come to WPI seemingly at the 
pinnacle of their careers, each with a deep hunger to achieve 
more. For WPI, that means moving higher among the ranks 
of national research universities — a move the deans are confi- 
dent will further strengthen the outstanding undergraduate 
experience here. 

"This is a very strong and healthy institution, and I 
think its primary asset is that no one settles, even when things 
are good," says Rice, a renowned authority on innovation and 
global technological entrepreneurship, who joined WPI from 



value generation, the substance?" A national leader in engi- 
neering education and research, Giiceri has come to small, 
collegial WPI from Drexel University, the largest engineering 
college among private universities, believing this to be the 
place where he may make his greatest contribution. 

Like Rice, Giiceri has an entrepreneur's mindset and 
believes in teaching the practical aspects of running, creating, 
and growing a business — and in the thrill of invention that 
comes from seeing its impact. Common research interests 
and sponsored research opportunities are high on everyone's 
list of priorities. Oates is bringing faculty together around 
business ethics, the cross-pollination of systems dynamics, 
economics, and psychology. "The faculty here is a think 
tank for building an innovative pedagogy," says Rice. "They 
are coming forward with ideas for adding a dimension of 
entrepreneurship and innovation across disciplines." 



'The world needs engineers who know how to turn 
research into innovation and innovation into impact." 



Babson College. "There is a real sense of 'how can we make 
it better?' As an entrepreneur, I'm drawn to the opportunity 
to create something new and exciting, but I'll be building on 
established strengths." 

This entrepreneur is also an engineer, having earned two 
degrees in the discipline before getting his PhD in manage- 
ment. So Rice had the credibility he needed when a 1940s-era 
alumnus called early on to ask why "my engineering school" 
needs a business school. It's a question Rice has fielded from 
students of every generation. His response is always steeped 
in the reality of current times and the power of this place: 
"The world needs engineers who know how to turn research 
into innovation and innovation into impact, and WPI has 
the approach, talent, and enduring commitment to make 
it happen." 

Giiceri wholeheartedly agrees. He has long admired WPI 
for knowing when and how to adapt to maintain its position 
as a role model for engineering education. "Leaders must keep 
moving or they fall behind," he says. "You cannot be a good 
engineer if you cannot make products that sell. Where is the 



Extending the WPI project experience toward civic 
engagement, locally and globally, is another purposeful direc- 
tion. "This is an amazing environment for high achievers 
interested in foreign and civil service, law, medicine, and 
secondary education — especially teaching science, mathe- 
matics, and technology," says Oates. 

"Know what you are looking for," Giiceri says. And he 
does. He is seeking "high impact" in terms of what faculty 
members offer, what students take away, and how society ben- 
efits. With increased research funding — private and public — 
the three deans will enhance the work of existing faculty and 
attract new talent and doctoral students whose collaborative 
efforts will create new knowledge. 

Oates, Giiceri, and Rice are ready to roll up their sleeves 
and practice what they preach. What better way to lead the 
charge for a comprehensive university that prizes integration 
across the disciplines than for each to have a hand in teaching 
a course on leadership, creativity, innovation, and entrepre- 
neurship? Like their doors, the class they will co-teach in 
fall 201 1 will be open to all. 



Tran sfo rmations \ Spring 2 011 9 



LORATIONS By Nancy Zerbey 



So you want to be a 

Rock V Roll Star? 

STUDENTS' COMPUTER SOFTWARE MAKES A GAME OF IT 




hatched in a college dorm is a good idea, 
but this one just might be a winner. It's an electronic guitar 
game called Digitar that made it to the final round of the 
20 1 President's IQP Awards Competition. 

Digitar is the brainchild of Patrick DeSantis (ECE '11), 
Sean Levesque (ECE '11), and James Montgomery (ECE '11), 



three friends who roomed together their sophomore year. 
Tossing around ideas for their junior-year Interactive 
Qualifying Project (IQP), they first thought about designing 
a new musical instrument. But then they bought a couple 
of guitars, just for fun, and made a maddening discovery: 
learning to play the guitar is difficult! 



10 Transformations \ Spring 201 1 



The students were surprised; after all, both DeSantis and 
Levesque had some prior musical experience (Levesque on 
saxophone and DeSantis with keyboards), and all three play 
the music video game Guitar Hero. But a guitar requires 
careful fingering, and the instrument has a special musical 
notation, called tablature, that has its own learning curve. 
Guitar Hero teaches neither fingering nor tablature, nor does 
Rock Band, the other major guitar game on the market. The 
gamers "guitar," in fact, has no strings — just buttons — and 
requires no real fret work at all. A gamer can achieve an 
expert level in a guitar game and yet be unable to play so 
much as "Louie Louie" on a real guitar. 

"We were frustrated, to be honest," DeSantis says. "We 
wanted to learn to play the guitar, but we wanted it to be 
intuitive and fun and exciting, like the game. What's so cool 
about games is that they are designed to be engaging, even 



"Digitar," would be lifelike and yet work economically in a 
learning-game environment. 

The team's proof-of-concept instrument was as home- 
grown as a high school garage band. When they couldn't find 
a parts-guitar on Craigslist, they bought an old guitar neck, 
fully strung, and attached it to a guitar body they made from 
plywood in DeSantis's dad's woodshop. They used a unique 
system of sensors for the frets and the strum board, strung a 
tangle of wires, incorporated a Texas Instruments MSP430 
microcontroller in the circuit, and secured the wiring with 
black grip tape. The result was surprisingly handsome — and 
it worked. They dubbed it "Splintar," for the splinters it 
threw off each time they used it. 

Next came the game software. Here the challenge was to 
design and encode a musical notation system that players could 
easily grasp and master. The team felt that traditional staff and 



We're not exactly saving lives with this project. 
But if we could bring more people to music, 

that would be a good thing.' 




addictive. You can be doing the same thing over and over 
again — for hours — and not tire of it because the environment 
is so exciting. So we asked ourselves, 'What if we could design 
a more guitar-like electronic interface and adapt a more 
game-like, animated notation that could help non-musicians 
learn to play the guitar?" 

They took the idea to Fred Bianchi, D.A., professor of 
music and director of computer music research, and Alex 
Wyglinski, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical and com- 
puter engineering, who agreed to serve as their IQP advisors. 
Then they got to work. 

The first challenge, and the major innovation, was to 
design and build a surrogate guitar, the "controller," that 
could record a player's real-time fret work and strumming 
and communicate that information directly to a computer, 
using the music industry's MDI protocol, which translates 
music into digital information. The computer would then 
generate the corresponding musical sounds. The team wanted 
the controller to be realistic, to have strings and a full set 
of frets, not the 6- to 10-button design of the controllers 
currently on the market; that way, the player could practice 
full fingering, which on a real guitar can produce more than 
120 string-and-fret combinations. The end product, the 



tablature notations were too daunting for non-musicians, so 
they patterned their notation on the animated scores found 
in Guitar Hero and other games. In the Digitar version, 
color-coded notes fall from the top of the game screen onto 
a graphic representation of a fretboard. When the notes reach 
their destination, they are played on the controller. In this 
way, both note value and rhythm are easily conveyed. 

"This project creates a springboard for video gamers to 
explore the possibility of serious musical instruction within 
a game environment," says Bianchi. "It opens a new door, 
showing us that there can be multiple entry points to a life 
of music." 

The Digitar system plays MIDI music files, millions 
of which are available free on the Internet, making the 
Digitar a very attractive learning system for the consumer 
market. Seeing this opportunity, the design team wrote a 
business plan for the Digitar system and entered it in two 
WPI competitions last year, taking first place in the Strage 
Innovation Competition and second in the Daedalus Inno- 
vation Competition. As the final round for the 2010 IQP 
Awards Competition loomed, and while juggling meetings 
with their patent advisors, the team replaced "Splintar" 
with a sleek, raspberry-pink guitar body. 



Transformations \ Spring 2011 II 














I 



AND 




President Berkey on the WPI relationship with China 



BBflaHII 







T2 Transformations \ Spring 201 1 



[CHINA] 



I 




In October 2010, WPI President Dennis Berkey traveled to China 
with a delegation that included his wife, Catherine Berkey, ScD, 
lecturer in medicine at Harvard Medical School; Kevin Rong, PhD, 
professor of mechanical engineering; and Jennifer Rudolph, PhD, 
associate professor of humanities and arts. During their weeklong 
trip, the WPI group visited Beijing Jiaotong University and Tsinghua 
University in Beijing, Huazhong University of Science and Technology 
in Wuhan, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Shanghai University. 

Transformations recently sat down with President Berkey to discuss his 
trip, his observations, and his insights on our relationship with China. 

— Charna Westervelt 






(UNITED STATES) 



Was this your first visit to China on behalf of WPI? 
Why was it important to you to make this trip? 
Previously I had visited our project center in Hong Kong 
with Professor Ed Ma, and we met with Trustee Glenn Yee 
'74, who was a most gracious host. Otherwise, this was my 
first mainland visit and Cathy's first altogether. The purpose 
of this trip was to strengthen WPI's relationships with five 
Chinese universities, and to attend the final MQP project 
presentations by our students who had been at our China 
Project Center during A-Term. 

What kinds of collaborations are taking place 
and why is it important to maintain these ties? 

Several of our faculty, including Amy Zeng in the School 
of Business and both Rick Sisson and Kevin Rong in the 
Mechanical Engineering Department, have research relation- 
ships with colleagues at these universities. They also exchange 
and sponsor students — both graduate and undergraduate. 
Amy and Kevin co-direct the China Project Center, which 



promotes cross-cultural collaborations between WPI and 
Chinese university students working together on project teams. 
More generally, we have agreements in place for the exchange 
of faculty and students, and for research collaboration. 

How would you characterize the collaboration 
between our AAQP students and their Chinese peers? 

I was very proud to witness not only the excellence of the 
teams' work and the eloquence of their formal presentations, 
but also the evident bonding and mutual respect, even 
friendships, that had developed between the WPI students 
and their Chinese teammates. In my formal remarks at the 
well-attended colloquium where they presented their results, 
I noted that they had collaborated successfully not only 
across the Pacific but also across centuries of cultural and 
historical differences to advance global innovation, techno- 
logical advance, and good will. The WPI students were, 
as they always are, wonderful ambassadors for WPI and 
for our nation. 



'The Chinese and American students collaborated 

successfully not only across the Pacific but also across 

centuries of cultural and historical differences/' 



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14 Transformations \ Spring 2011 




From left, President Dennis Berkey, 
Catherine Berkey, and Associate 
Professor Jennifer Rudolph. 



How did the mechanical engineering programs at the 
universities you visited compare with labs at WPI? 

We observed a high degree of engagement of the undergrad- 
uate students, including recently enrolled freshmen, with 
sophisticated manufacturing tools and technologies, such as 
computer-controlled milling and manufacturing systems. They 
also do early and extensive work with materials, producing 
scale models of structures, buildings, bridges, aircraft, etc. It 
is a very practical engagement with the tools and methods of 
production. There is a strong focus on manufacturing technolo- 
gies and systems. We saw several robotics laboratories where 
work appeared similar to what one observes on our campus, 
including autonomous soccer-playing robots. We were invited 
to operate the simulator at the high-speed rail technology center 
at Beijing Jiaotong University, which was fun and most impres- 
sive. Our visits were very brief, but from what we saw, the 
facilities and activities were, by and large, not too much differ- 
ent from what one would observe in leading U.S. universities. 

One difference we did note, however, was the lack of 
cross-disciplinary collaboration between mechanical engineer- 
ing and business/management programs or the life sciences, 
which is unlike our approach at WPI and, certainly, at other 
universities in this country. 

Jennifer Rudolph, an authority on Chinese history 
and culture, was part of the delegation that traveled 
with you. Did culture play a major role in this trip? 
Jennifer was a wonderful companion and interpreter of the 
cultural and historical context for so many aspects of what we 
saw, including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen 
Square, a most interesting museum in Wuhan, and everyday 
life in the urban centers. We stayed in the old part of Shanghai 
in what is called the French Concession, which was lovely, 
but Jennifer also hosted us for a fascinating visit to Pudong, 
the ultra-modern part of the city. She also took us to the city 
planning department of Shanghai, where there is a huge scale- 
model of the city done in great detail. Given China's rapid 
development and long history, Jennifer provided rich insights 
into so much of what we saw and experienced. 



What was the highlight of the trip for you? 
There were many highlights, as the trip was quite intense. 
The Great Wall and the natural beauty of China were breath- 
taking. The warmth with which we were received by our 
hosts, including faculty and students, was most impressive. 
Observing the rapid pace at which China is developing its 
infrastructure was sobering. And, of course, seeing our WPI 
students presenting their excellent work with such poise and 
grace was among the best of the highlights. 

Are you planning more international visits? 

I try to make one or two international trips per year for 
the purposes of visiting alumni and other donors, attending 
important international meetings, and/or visiting WPI 
project centers. We are often able to combine several of 
these agendas in a single trip. I expect that we will continue 
to develop new international project centers, but we do so 
based on interests of faculty members, usually resulting from 
regional interests or research relationships rather than by 
direction from the administration. That is as it should be, 
as project center leadership is very demanding of faculty 
time and energy. 

Did this trip to China strengthen the relationships 
between WPI and the five engineering institutions? 

We certainly believe so, judging by the interest shown in 
advancing these relationships. Professors Rong and Rudolph 
have developed a trip report that will serve as a basis for 
advancing these relationships, and Professor Sisson made a 
visit to China soon after ours, which also showed promise of 
expanded relationships with some of these same institutions, 
as well as some in Korea. Collaboration with these Asian part- 
ners holds great promise for increased opportunities for our 
students and faculty, and for technological and educational 
advance. The key will be to choose and craft those types of 
relationships best suited to WPI's strengths and aspirations. 
I am optimistic for these continuing developments. D 



Transformations | Spring 2011 15 



With growth and innovation comes new fire safety concerns. 



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Among the most memorable images from the 
2008 summer Olympics in Beijing were those 
of Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals. 

But perhaps equally impressive to fans on the 
scene and to television viewers around the 
world was the building in which he performed 
these feats. The National Aquatic Center turned 
heads as a triumph of ingenuity and beauty. 

When Kulbhushan Joshi sees that building, 
he doesn't think about world records or about 
beauty and design, but about fire. And about 
the extensive planning that goes into making 
buildings with pioneering designs safe from 
the threat of fire. 



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Transformations \ Spring 2011 17 




Dubbed "The Bubble" because of its resemblance ro froth, 
the structure (above) looks like a freestanding block of water. 
This arrestingly unusual space conveys uniqueness, forward 
thinking, and a sense of excitement about Chinas rising pros- 
perity and its concomitant star turn on the world stage. Build- 
ings like this one and the nearby National Stadium (previous 
page), called "The Bird's Nest" because it looks like it might 
have been made from twigs, are emblems of a building boom 
unparalleled in the history of a county that is home to nearly 
a fifth of the worlds population. As millions of people are 
migrating to its cities, skylines all over China are morphing. 

Joshi, a native of Mumbai, India, who is in the final 
stages of earning a PhD in fire protection engineering at 
WPI, points out that originality in form requires original 
thinking in how to accomplish functional objectives. "With 
every innovation there comes a new fire safety concern." 

Brian McLaughlin '01, '02 (MS FPE) agrees that when 
innovative designs are in play, it is important to make sure 
that form and function are thought of in tandem from the 
start of the design process. McLaughlin, who has worked 
in Hong Kong, among other international sites, is currently 
based in the Los Angeles office of Arup, an international 
engineering firm that participated in the design and con- 
struction of the National Stadium and the National 
Aquatic Center. 

The key, he said, is to consider fire protection engineer- 
ing principles early on. "At the concept stage you can still 
make suggestions," he said. "The goal we have with an archi- 
tect is to enable their designs to come to reality while still 
maintaining the appropriate level of safety." 



In the case of the National Aquatic Center, the repetitive 
geometric design and the innovative outer casing posed special 
challenges, according to Jeff Tubbs 90, '95 (MS), another 
Arup engineer with knowledge of the project. Scientists devel- 
oped computer models, he said, to figure out how loads 
would be redistributed if the heat of a fire compromised indi- 
vidual support features. This is an example of what is called 
performance-based design. When architectural elements are 
so innovative that existing fire codes give little guidance in 
evaluating construction criteria, performance-based design 
models not only help illustrate the behavior of structural 
elements in a fire, they are also used to predict smoke 
migration patterns and crowd responses to situations where 
a quick exit is of utmost importance. 

Fire safety in China isn't just about figuring out how 
to protect innovative architectural structures. It is also about 
dealing with the multitude of new buildings sprouting up 
at an incredible rate due to the burgeoning economy. 

The demand for fire protection engineers is booming in 
China as a result of unprecedented new construction, says 
Fang Li '01 (MS). Li heads the Shanghai office of Rolf Jensen 
and Associates, an international fire protection consultancy 
firm, as executive vice president of China operations. 

"Everybody realizes how important fire safely is," said Li 
in a recent interview, "but people talking about fire protection 
have no idea how that applies to engineering." The field of 
fire protection is based on the premise that engineering prin- 
ciples can be applied to planning for the unexpected. Li's 
office of 12 people is currently serving more than 100 clients. 
Their projects include shopping malls, airport buildings, a 
train station, and a convention and exposition center in the 
industrial city of Suzhou, 60 miles west of Shanghai. 

Performance-based design is one of the frontiers in 
fire safety, according to Kathy Notarianni, who heads WPI's 
Department of Fire Protection Engineering. This new direc- 
tion in fighting fires before they occur is connected to 
advances in computer modeling and the ability of engineers 
to create algorithms to predict the path and speed of combus- 
tion and smoke, as well as human behavior in emergency 
situations. This development is driving a revaluation of fire 
safety codes not only in the realm of innovative and original 
designs for enclosed spaces, such as those built for the Beijing 
Olympics, but also for the more common structures of 
everyday life. 

A seminal event in the history of the field, said 
Notarianni, was the release in 1973 of America Burning, 
a report issued by a national commission established by the 
Nixon administration. A key finding was that the United 
States had some of the highest fire-related death rates 
among industrial countries even though it spent the most 
money per capita on fire prevention and control. 



18 Transformations \ Spring 2011 



"We were blindly purring many requirements into the 
code that were costly," said Notarianni. Legislation around 
fire codes is often a response to the most recent high-profile 
fire. "It's a lessons-learned approach," she said, "we were sort 
of chasing our tail." The America Burning report marked 
the beginning of a real interest in bringing science and 
engineering to bear on the problem. 

Performance-based design requires clearly defined 
objectives, such as that everyone in a building is able to get 
out safely in the event of a fire. With basic goals in mind 
researchers create computer models aimed at accurately pre- 
dicting the trajectory of all possible scenarios. "The physics 
of fire modeling is extremely complex," said Notarianni, as 
is human behavior, especially when design challenges involve 
large numbers of people. 

Much of the work being conducted in fire science labo- 
ratories at WPI strives to enhance understanding of the prop- 
erties of building materials, especially new composites being 
developed to make innovative designs possible. The items 
within buildings — appliances, decorations, fuels, gasses — 
are also of interest. 

Industry and academic laboratories are constantly gener- 
ating data that can be fed into computer simulations, along 
with the geometry' of the spaces being considered and the 
expected impact of fire suppression equipment. 

Randall Harris has managed a laboratory in WPI's 
Department of Fire Protection Engineering since 2002. Under 
his care, tools such as a thermal gravimetric analyzer can test 
substances and materials at the nanogram scale to determine 
their melting points by plotting weight alongside very precise 
temperature measurements. An array of calorimeters are used 
to burn materials under controlled conditions. This allows 
researchers to collect data on everything from how long it 
takes a given specimen to ignite under a given set of circum- 
stances to the special characteristics of effluents. The smoke 
and soot emanating from combustion is channeled through 
a hood into a chamber where a laser beam passes through it 
to measure how it affects light. 

Harris also has a space in which a room-sized conflagra- 
tion can be set off. "From time to time researchers need a 
place where they can just have a big fire and have it be safe 
and measurable," he said. The purposes of the larger fires are 
often to validate the results of the smaller burns. "If we get 



Engineers create algorithms 
to predict the path and speed 
of fire and smoke as well 
as the behavior of people 
in emergency situations. 



within 20 percent of what we predicted, we're doing good," 
said Harris. "The science is still new and we are still finding 
things out." 

In addition to being a place for faculty and students 
to conduct research, the lab is rented out to industry and 
municipal clients for a fee. Recently, the Bay Area Rapid 
Transit (BART) system that connects San Francisco, 
Oakland, and adjoining communities used the facility to 
set a mock subway car aflame. 

"The basic idea was to use specimens of even-thing in 
the car, from the glass windows to the electrical wires to the 
carpeting to the seats," explains Harris. Besides analyzing the 
smoke, the chamber in which the fire is set has sensors in 
the floors, walls, and ceilings, as well as multiple stands with 
equipment that not only measures heat but also the direction 
and velocitv of airflow. A video camera captures a visual 
record of the fire. The goal, said Harris, "is to characterize 
everything that's in there and then look at that as a compos- 
ite picture to find out how these things are going to react 
together." 

These are the kinds of skills 22-year-old Yanxuan Xie is 
hoping to someday bring back to southwestern China and his 
native citv of Chengdu, which is growing so quickly that he 
can remember seeing farmers grazing their cows in a section 
of the city that within half a year was transformed into a 
commercial center. 

Xie didn't know what he wanted to specialize in when he 
arrived at WPI as a freshman. He credits one of his professors 
with alerting him to the field of fire protection engineering 
and to "the huge need in China" for the skills it entails. He is 
in his final semester of the five-year BS/MS degree program 
through which he also earned a bachelor's degree in civil 
engineering. 

"This kind of engineering is different," says Xie. "Fire 
protection has the aspect of protecting people. It gives me the 
sense that it is a really noble position in which I can make a 
contribution, and that when I go back to China I could 
become a leading figure. D 



Transformations \ Spring 20 1 1 19 



TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN BUSINESS 



MADE IN CHINA 




When President Hu Jintao made 
a state visit to the White House in 
January, an NPR commentator con- 
cluded that the momentous summit 
with President Barack Obama 
underscored China's status as 
"America's top economic rival." 

Perhaps, but the WPI community is 

proving that the relationship between 

the two powerhouse nations is more 

complex and symbiotic in nature. 

Here are four perspectives from 

alumni who are benefitting 

from collaborations — rather 

than competition — with 

Chinese colleagues. 







Daniel Boothe '05 is an acoustical engineer 
whose expertise is in loudspeaker design. At EAW, 
a division of Loud Technologies in Whitinsville, 
Mass., Boothe leads projects involving houses of 
worship, corporate AV, nightclubs, and stadiums. 
He has worked on site in China with contract 
manufacturers on initial production quality. 

Pamela Giasson '05, an R&D battery assembly 
supervisor at A123 Systems in Watertown, Mass., 
spent time on site at the company's electrode 
coating and lithium ion battery manufacturing 
facilities in Shanghai and Changzhou. 

Bob Falciani '68, a principal at AlfaTech in 
San Jose, Calif, has a particular expertise in bio- 
pharmaceutical and electronics facilities throughout 
the U.S., Europe, and Asia. His work in China 
has dealt with high-technology manufacturing, 
including semiconductor manufacturing, test 
and assembly, and data centers. 

Al Barry '77 of Atlanta is an entrepreneur with 
consulting and manufacturing business in the 
U.S. and Asia. He holds five patents (one from the 
Peoples Republic of China) and is a member of 
the WPI Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board. 
He earned master's degrees in engineering and 
business from Georgia Institute of Technology. 



BARRY'S PREDICTIONS 



China will be the largest 
economy in the world, 
though many countries 
will have a larger middle 
class with far fewer people 
in the lower economic 
class. China will struggle 
to balance the present 
imbalance of wealth 
accumulation. 



China will feel repercus- 
sions from Western nations 
that are not allowed to sell 
in the closed or protected 
Chinese markets. Western 
nations may be less likely 
to purchase Chinese goods 
or to allow Chinese firms 
access to their markets. 



20 Transformations \ Spring 2011 



Popular perception of products coming 
out of China is that they are of low quality. 
That is certainly true some of the time, but I've been 
pleased to discover it is possible to make high-end 
loudspeakers there as well. The quality can be as high 
as the time one is willing to spend insisting on it, and 
the amount of money one is willing to spend sending 
engineers like me halfway around the world. — Boothe 



If electrification is 
the answer to a 
greener planet 

and a more efficient 
way of life, China 
could get there 
first, making its 
economy very hard 
to compete with. 



— Giasson 



Unless a Western 
firm plans to establish 
a true Chinese entity, 

the longevity is limited due 
to the fact the Chinese will 
learn fast and take it forward 
themselves. — Falciani 



In China, the group is more important than the individual, 
tradition is more important than a new idea, 

and consensus is more important than the demands of a 
single person. In China, the group is accustomed to being 
led and to following the leader. I had to learn when to 
step forward and lead, without being a ruthless dictator 
or a wild cowboy. I continue today to read everything 
I can about the history, culture, politics, and economy 

of China. —Barry 



As China's wealth increases, so does its ability to invest in its future. Over the past 
couple of years it has made very noticeable investments in improving transportation 
networks and building the newest hotels and office buildings. It has also been 
investing behind the scenes in an improved electrical infrastructure. China plans to 
install tens of nuclear power plants throughout its nation over the next 5-10 years 

and to build the most powerful and sophisticated electrical grid in 

the world. At the same time, it is investing heavily in electrifying its vehicles 
and reducing fossil fuel consumption. —Giasson 

Eventually, the cost of doing business in China must rise due 
to its explosive growth, and the incentive to innovate will become 
greater. But I predict it will be a long time coming. —Boothe 



When I started, in 2001, 
it was easy to recruit 
untrained, raw labor 
at very low cost. The 

opportunity was to use this 
labor to manufacture and 
assemble products for export. 
The factory overhead was 
also much lower than in the 
West. The low labor and 
low overhead costs were 
somewhat offset by higher 
transportation costs to the 
Western markets. — Barry 

China realizes that 
with its more recent 
economic growth it 
is probably the only 
world power that has 
the "luxury" to plan 
its development with 
all of the knowledge 
and experience that 
the last part of the last 
century has to offer. 

— Falciani 

With its Communist government, 
China is able to make decisions 
and implement changes very 
quickly compared to most other 
governments around the globe. 
Because China can react faster, 
it has the opportunity 
to catch up over the next 
15-20 years. —Giasson 



Chinese firms will work hard 
to learn Western management 
and marketing techniques 
and seek to emulate the 
Japanese model of investing 
in foreign countries rather 
than exporting all products 
from China. 



The Chinese government will 
have a difficult time controlling 
the Chinese military and 
national pride. More incidents 
will occur where China inter- 
feres with other countries, or 
attempts to extend its sovereign 
rights. The strong economy 
will drive expectations of a 
strong military and a larger 
role in global affairs. 



The Chinese people 
will continue to expect 
more openness, more 
transparency, and more 
individual rights from 
their government. 




Transformations \ Spring 2011 21 



Looking Back 



By Michael W. Dorsey 



t0 Look Forward 




Were it not for a te<hnicality, Jennifer Rudolph, associ- 
ate professor of Asian history at \TPI, might have become a 
doctor instead of a scholar of Chinese political history. 
Enrolled as a pre-med major at the University of Chicago, 
she signed up for a course sequence in far-Eastern civilization 
to fulfill a core humanities and arts requirement. She loved 
the courses and her professor. "He would tell us that every- 
thing good came from China," she says, laughing. 

When the time came to fulfill her foreign language 
requirement, she opted for Chinese. But then her advisor 
informed her that she couldn't take both organic chemistry 
and Chinese. Shed have to choose — between the courses, 
and, more to the point, between continuing her pre-med 
studies and switching majors. "I dropped out of organic," 
she says. "I liked pre-med, but it didn't light my fire in the 
way the Chinese sequence had." 

She earned her bachelor's degree in far Eastern languages 
and civilizations and was accepted into the Inter-University 
Program for Advanced Chinese Language Studies in Taiwan. 
She spent a year and a half in Taiwan becoming proficient in 
spoken and written Mandarin Chinese (she can also speak and 
read modern Japanese and read classical Chinese and Manchu). 
Returning to the United States, she put her language skills 



22 Transformations \ Spring 2011 



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to good use as general manager of the U.S. office of Fusion 
Electronics, a small joint venture that made laptops in 
Taiwan, and then at SEI Information Technologies, an IT 
consulting company. By that time she had decided to return 
to school. "Working at SEI was the first business experience 
that I found trulv stimulating," she says, "but I wanted more 
depth, more expertise, more understanding of the world 
around me." 

She enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle, 
where she became immersed in institutional and political his- 
tory "This is the stuff between political science and history," 
she says. "This is how politics works and operates in contem- 
porary contexts, but to understand that you have to have a 
historical basis." She turned her attention to the modern 
institutional and political history of China, but as she read 
the portraits of the modern period captured by Western 
scholars, she began to wonder if they'd gotten the story right. 

In this popular view, China in the latter half of the 19th 
centurv was a nation in turmoil, but also a nation that kept 
its eyes closed. In the waning years of the Qing dynast)', 
which had ruled the sprawling empire since 1644, humiliat- 
ing losses to foreign armies and navies and internal revolts 
that threatened the country's stability put the government 
in crisis. The world was changing all around it, but China 
seemed unable to adapt and modernize. Its stagnation would 
lead, in short order, to the downfall of the Qing dynasty 
and a century of upheaval. 

But to Rudolph, this narrative didn't ring true. "The 
Chinese government was populated by people who had 
gone through a rigorous civil service examination," she says. 



Rudolphs scholarship resulted in a book that is credited 
with revising our understanding of this pivotal period. 



24 Transformations \ Spring 2011 





"They were really smart; they weren't unaware. They recog- 
nized Western military might, and they debated many 
courses of action." 

She notes that much of the work done on modern 
Chinese history through the 1 970s was written from a dis- 
tance. "Many of the people who wrote these works were great 
scholars," she says, "but they had limited access to the origi- 
nal source documents and they were immersed in the para- 
digm of modernization theory. China had not followed the 
accepted modernization path; moreover, it was a Communist 
state and had closed off its mainland archives to outsiders." 

Rudolphs graduate studies came on the heels of the 
normalization of relations between China and the United 
States and coincided with the opening of those archives to 
Westerners. She spent nearly two years visiting archives in 
Beijing and Taipei, studying the intricacies of Chinese 
bureaucracy in the late 19th century, a time the Chinese 
called the Self-Strengthening Period. 

She discovered that the Zongli Yamen, the most impor- 
tant government organization established at that time, was far 
more than an ineffectual Western-style Chinese response to 
the country's defeat during the Opium Wars, which was how 
accepted scholarship portrayed it. Rather, it reflected top- 
level awareness of the need for innovation in governance and 
represented a significant and forward-looking Chinese-based 
effort to reassert central control in an era of decentralization. 

Rudolph's scholarship resulted in a book, Negotiated 
Power in Late Imperial China: The Zongli Yamen and the 
Politics of Reform (Cornell East Asia Series, 2008), that is 
credited with revising our understanding of this pivotal 
period. "The Zongli Yamen is known as China's first foreign 
office, but it was really closer to a state council or cabinet," 
Rudolph says. "It was in charge of all modernization. The 



Qing Dynasty had the world's most mature bureaucracy; 
how do you add to it a government organ that is responsible 
for all modernization? Think about how many tentacles it 
had to have and how much jurisdiction and control it needed. 
Think Homeland Security," she adds, noting that the U.S. 
department created to build bridges between disparate intel- 
ligence agencies may be the best modern anaology for the 
Zongli Yamen. 

Before the creation of the Zongli Yamen, the Chinese 
government consisted of many parallel hierarchies, all report- 
ing up to the Grand Council — the only Qing office with 
comprehensive jurisdiction. Horizontal linkages were nonex- 
istent between these silos. "The Zongli Yamen, because it was 
in charge of foreign relations, because it was in charge of min- 
ing, the post office, and all of the other operations that go 
along with modernization, had to have mechanisms in place 
that linked the parallel hierarchies of the new foreign affairs 
administration and the established territorial administration 
so that it could access necessary information," Rudolph says. 

These linkages made possible the give and take that was 
central to the process of fostering change within a centrally 
controlled organization, she says. "This is a difficult process. 
It takes constant negotiation. Where does the power come 
from? You can decree it, but it ultimately has to become a 
de facto kind of power." 

While the Zongli Yamen was short-lived and the Qing 
Dynasty, itself, collapsed in 1911, Rudolph says the tale of 
the Zongli Yamen is nevertheless a story of significance. It 
demonstrates that China was able to develop its own approach 
to innovation and change, one that ultimately helped ration- 
alize governance and usher in a more ministerial type of rule. 

Significantly, as China distances itself from a century 
marked bv wars, civil strife, and revolution to build a modern. 



Tr a ns formations \ Spring 2011 25 




innovation-driven economy, it is reexamining the structures 
of the Zongli Yamen. "What is interesting it that they are 
in some ways doing the exact same thing the Zongli Yamen 
did," she says. "Take, for example, the banking system in 
China. It is state owned and controlled, but all around it 
you have economic liberalization taking place. So all of a 
sudden, the banking system is opening up. You still have to 
keep control at the top, but there is an effort to establish 
horizontal linkages." 

For Rudolph, the story of the Zongli Yaman holds an 
important lesson for today's government and business leaders: 
sometimes, to understand what is really going on in a com- 
plex and nontransparent country like China, you need to 
look in unexpected places. "China is evolving so quickly," 
she says, "and we tend to look at the top and the bottom for 
clues: What is the Politburo doing? Are there lots of protests 
by average citizens? 

"But you need to look in the middle to see how the 
country is actually working. It's there that you'll get a real 
understanding of whether or not China will be stable and 
whether the economic reforms and the pace of reforms will 
be sustainable. A lot of attention is being paid to that area in 
China right now." 

And a lot of attention is being paid to China, itself, 
around the world, as it emerges as a major and influential 
economic power. As the recent visit to Washington by 
Chinese president Hu Jintao made clear, "the United States 
and China are two giants that are going to have to share 
the stage, at least for the foreseeable future," Rudolph says. 
A great deal of uncertainty remains about how that relation- 
ship will play out, and just where the path of economic and 
political reform will take China in the years ahead. As the 
Obama Administration strains to get a clearer picture of 
that future with history-conscious China, Rudolph says, 
it doesn't hurt to take a moment to examine the past. D 



26 Transformations \ Spring 2011 




In the 1983 film Zelig, Woody Allen plays a human 
chameleon who can fit into any situation by taking 
on the appearance and mannerisms of those around 
him. One of the more remarkable stories in modern 
Chinese history is the Zelig-like tale of a 17th-century 
pirate whose life and story have been transformed 
again and again to fit the purposes of a string of 
governing powers. 

The story of Zheng Chenggong, known as Koxinga in the West, 
is intimately intertwined with the history of Taiwan, says Jennifer 
Rudolph, who is working on a book about the changing sense of 
"place identity" on this island that lies less than 100 miles from 
the coast of mainland China. 

Taiwan's identity is no small matter, Rudolph notes. In 1949, when 
the Chinese Communist Party came to power in the People's 
Republic of China (PRC), the losing side, the Nationalists, found 
safe haven on Taiwan for their regime, the Republic of China 
(ROC). "Ever since, there have been two Chinas," she says. "This 
stalemated civil war makes the international status of Taiwan 
complicated: is it a nation-state, or is it a province?" 

The PRC claims the island as a province, but since 1949 Taiwan, 
as the ROC, has acted as a de facto state. The United States 
recognized Taiwan and the ROC as the rightful China until 1979, 
when it switched its recognition to the PRC. "All of this makes 
Taiwan's identity hotly contested," Rudolph says, "and it makes 
Zheng Chenggong an important figure once again." 

Zheng Chenggong 's father was Chinese — a merchant and 
pirate — and his mother, daughter of a Samurai, was Japanese. 
After the Manchu invaded southern China and drove out the Ming 
emperor, Zheng, a Ming loyalist, fought the new Qing Dynasty 
until forced to flee to Taiwan. There, he drove out Dutch colonists 
and turned the once lawless island into a thriving Ming outpost 
and commercial state. 



When China ceded Taiwan to Japan after the first Sino-Japanese 
War in 1895, Zheng's legacy was refreshed once again. Well 
known in Japan because of his mother and a popular 18th-century 
Japanese play that portrayed him as a folk hero, Zheng became 
a symbol of the historical connection between Japan and Taiwan. 
"The new colonial regime used plays and textbook passages about 
Zheng to spread the message of patriotism and loyalty," Rudolph 
says. "They painted Zheng's brand of anti-imperialism as anti- 
Western and used his mixed heritage and loyalty to his emperor 
to claim his loyalty to the Japanese emperor." 

At the end of World War II, Japan withdrew from Taiwan just as 
China was in the midst of a civil war that ultimately resulted in the 
split between Communist China on the mainland and the ROC on 
Taiwan. The Nationalist Party on Taiwan resurrected the image 
of Zheng as a liberator. "It even referred to its leader, Chiang Kai- 
shek, as a modern-day Koxinga," Rudolph says, "who would soon 
retake the mainland." 

Today, as Taiwan's future hangs in the balance, leaders on both 
sides of the Strait of Taiwan understand the value of the story of 
Zheng Chenggong. Those dreaming of an independent nation hail 
him as the Father of Taiwan who brought Chinese civilization and 
culture to the island; a former vice president has even referred to 
Zheng as Taiwan's Moses. Those hoping to unite Taiwan with the 
mainland portray him as a national hero who freed the island from 
foreign imperialists. In fact, on the island of Gulangyu in Fujian 
province, where Zheng planned his attack on the Dutch, the PRC 
has built a massive granite statue of him. 

"It's the largest stone statue of a historical figure in China," Rudolph 
says, "including the major political figures of the 20th century, like 
Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaoping. The statue is indicative of the iden- 
tity building that the PRC has actively engaged in during the current 
period: a rediscovering of history and the construction of alternative 
grassroots models of belonging for contested places like Taiwan." 

Like the tales of many legendary figures, those of Koxinga are far 
more grandiose than the real story of the brutal pirate who may 
have killed thousands in his quest to establish his own kingdom. 
"But," says Rudolph, "the usefulness of Zheng Chenggong as a 
political icon will continue to outweigh the realities of the 
historical record." 



Zheng ruled Taiwan until his death from malaria in 1662. His 
children held onto power until the 1680s, when the Qing empire 
conquered the island and decided that it made political and eco- 
nomic sense to annex it. To help strengthen ties between Taiwan 
and the mainland, they also co-opted the memory of Zheng, 
whom they'd previously viewed as a traitor and outlaw. Under 
the new regime, he was lionized as a Confucian god for his 
service as a loyal official of the Ming. 




Within hours of the announcement in Oslo last October 
that Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was the 2010 recipient of 
the Nobel Peace Prize, search engines in China stopped yield- 
ing responses for anything connected to the Nobel Prizes, 
according to Professor of Mechanical Engineering Yiming 
(Kevin) Rong. "Before the Peace Prize was announced, the 
Nobel Prizes were introduced for the sciences," said Rong, 
ticking off physics, biology, and economics. "But once the 
Peace Prize was announced, everything about the Nobel 
Prizes was cut." 

The Chinese government is very sensitive about criticism 
and regards the awarding of the prize to the jailed literary 
critic who advocates for an end to one-party Communist rule 
in China as a slap in the face. That the government could 
largely succeed in cutting off an estimated 450 million Internet 
users from a slice of global communications immediately after 



one of its domestic critics was thrust into the international 
limelight is illustrative of the complicated relationship 
between the drive for economic growth in China and the 
free flow of information. 

The desire and the ability of Chinese authorities to filter 
search results has been a bone of contention between the gov- 
ernment and Google, the world's largest search engine. When 
Google launched its Chinese site in 2006, it faced a dilemma: 
the price of being granted permission to do business in China 
included having to agree to government censorship. 

Jennifer Rudolph, associate professor of Asian history, 
has been observing the evolution of this relationship. Initially 
Google agreed to terms it found onerous because it didn't 
want to risk missing out on establishing itself in the world's 
largest Internet market. Google saw itself as a force for open- 
ness, said Rudolph, "it justified its entrance into China as 



28 Transformations \ Spring 2011 



There is a complicated relationship 

between the drive for economic growth in 

China and the free flow of information. 



bringing a benefit to the Chinese and that censorship was the 
price it had to pay." 

The relationship soured in December 2009 when Google 
perceived that its servers were being hacked by the govern- 
ment, and last March Google announced that it would no 
longer filter search results. The company still has a presence 
in China, but its search portal directs users to its servers in 
Hong Kong, which are not subject to censorship. 

Without Google, Chinese Internet users are not left 
to wander aimlessly in the ether. A homegrown search engine 
called Baidu is by far the most popular way to navigate the 
Internet in China. Rong, who divides his time between his 
post in Worcester and a job at Tsinghua University in Beijing, 
says that in terms of speed Baidu now surpasses Google 
because of the extra hurdles related to routing and service 
interruption that Google users must endure. That edge has 
enabled Baidu to increase its already dominant market share. 
Rong believes Baidu is less powerful than Google in terms 
of search results, but Baidu has a better grasp of the Chinese 
market and is therefore more likely to give surfers results they 
are looking for. 

That is, unless they are looking for information tied 
to politically sensitive phrases such as "June 4, 1989," 
"Tiananmen massacre," or "Falun Gong." (The last is the 
name of a banned religious movement.) As significantly, 
says Rong, Chinese Internet users don't have access to pop- 
ular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and 
YouTube. Again, there are Chinese equivalents of these sites. 



They are wildly popular, but they are on the other side of 
what is often referred to as "The Great Firewall" that sepa- 
rates Chinese Internet users from the rest of the world. 

At the start of the January uprising in Egypt, the 
Associated Press reported that Chinese microblogging sites 
based on the Twitter formula yielded this message to anyone 
searching the word Egypt: "According to relevant laws, 
regulations, and policies, the search results are not shown." 

Asked what he thinks would happen if Chinese authori- 
ties lifted all restrictions on Internet searches, Rong said, "It 
may have significant impact on government authority in the 
country." He doesn't hazard a guess on how long it would 
take for the current power structure to collapse, but he holds 
it unlikely that it would be a peaceful transition. Because of 
that, he said, as long as the government can deliver economic 
growth, there are significant parts of the population that sup- 
port censorship as a legitimate tool for maintaining stability. 
He is not among them. "I've been here too long," said Rong 
of his many years studying and living in the United States. 

The dilemma facing the Chinese government, he said, 
is that trends in technology make it more and more difficult 
to limit the free flow of information in a society that wants 
to participate in global economic growth. The danger is that 
as people find out that they have been misled about the 
meaning and impact of important historical events, it will 
unleash anger that will be hard to contain. 

"I know the problem," said Rong, "but I don't know 
the solution." D 



Transformations \ Spring 201 1 29 



By Susan Seligson 



CULTURE 




From the food (hot dogs — ugh) to the social gatherings (so loud!), Chinese 

students try hard to understand America and its customs. 



On a frigid Sunday evening in February, Yao Zheng, an 
electrical engineering grad student from Beijing, escorts an 
American acquaintance to a WPI party kicking off a week of 
festivities to usher in the Year of the Rabbit. The Campus Center 
is all but deserted and eerily silent as Yao heads up the stairs and 
nudges open the double doors of the Odeum. There, at least 
150 Chinese students sit at round tables drinking Coke and 
finishing the last bites of dinner from a copious Asian buffet. 
"This is a real Chinese party," says Yao, who returned to 
China in August. "People just stay seated." He is happy at WPI 
but counts just two Americans among his friends. The school's 
many services for Chinese students, and international students 
in general, range from writing assistance to ESL tutoring to 
off-campus shopping tours. But nothing prepared Yao for the 



divergent social styles of Americans and Chinese. Chinese 
prefer structured gatherings, communal cooking, and games 
to freewheeling encounters. As a pair of Chinese comedians 
banter before the quietly appreciative crowd, Yao speaks of a 
cultural gap that breeds neither animosity nor disapproval, 
just perpetual bemusement. 

"What if you saw a girl you liked at another table — how 
would you approach her?" asks the visitor. "I wouldn't!" says 
the quick-witted, jovial Yao, who has a girlfriend in China 
and texts her at every opportunity. When he arrived at WPI, 
Yao was homesick and spent about $2,000 a month calling 
China. He's settled in now, but still marvels at how, both at 
parties and in the classroom, Americans venture boldly where 
Chinese fear to tread. 



30 Transformations \ Spring 2011 





An annual report by the Institute of International Edu- 
cation reported a 30 percent rise in the number of Chinese 
nationals studying in the United States last year. Chinese stu- 
dents attending U.S. colleges now number 128,000, or 18 
percent, of 691,000 international students. In 2010, according 
to the report, China outranked India as the leading source 
of foreign students in this country. 

WPI embodies that trend, with Chinese students making 
up 48 percent of the Institute's 730 international undergrad- 
uates and graduate students, who hail from 60 countries, 
according to Tom Thomsen, director of international students 
and scholars at WPI's International House. WPI has two 
thriving Chinese student organizations: the Chinese Student 
Association, composed of students from Taiwan and Hong 



Kong as well as mainland China, and the Chinese Students 
and Scholars Association, a group of graduate students from 
mainland China. 

"There's a national trend of colleges being inundated 
with applications from China," says Thomsen, whose staff 
helps foreign students settle in with three-day orientation 
workshops offering guidance with everything from the nuts 
and bolts of visas and permits for work and travel, to helping 
students cope with language barriers, dizzying academic 
options, and, perhaps most confounding, American ways. 

"Culture shock comes in phases," explains Thomsen, 
whose counseling staff employs a YouTube clip from Columbia 
University (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPfB6GIjM9Q). 
"At first it's all great, but after a few weeks students start 



Trans formation s \ Spring 2011 31 



Chinese students make up 48 percent of WPI's 

730 international undergraduate 
and graduate students. 




getting depressed, and miss the comfort and environment of 
their home country. There's a lot to get used to, so we intro- 
duce them to the community. " which includes an outing to 
a shopping mall and a walk-through at Worcester's Super 
Wal-Mart. Though its understandable that Chinese students 
will cling to the familiar by sticking together at first, "we 
encourage them little by little to branch out and meet some 
American students," he says. 

If only it were that easy, laments Yuliang "Kevin" Sun, a 
graduate student in marketing. Yuliang is one of six Chinese 
students living off campus who gather at the Park Avenue 
restaurant Pho Dakao to discuss the trials and rewards of 
attending college a world away from home. For starters, 
that ubiquitous American greeting, "How are you?" had him 
stumped. "I didnt know how to answer," he recalls, as he 
digs into a meal of steamed fish, spring rolls, and caramelized 
pork. "In China you always try to give a real answer. I don t 
know how to keep up the conversation, and I don't know 
what American girls are interested in. I had to make American 
friends to improve my speaking, and when I invite them to 
a parn- they are pleased to come," he says. "But they're not 
interested in our games." 

Topping these is a role-playing game called "Mafia 
Doctor" that has captivated the youth of mainland China, 
says undergraduate Yunwen Sun, 20, a math major. 



"Americans go to a frat house to dance, drink, and 
talk about partying," says Yunwen. "We sit together and play 
games. Our definition of party is just friends sitting together." 
Yuliang, who'd returned from China just a day earlier, puts 
it succinctly: "Its like we're boring." Most of the students 
are products of China's one-child law, the single aspect of 
Chinese culture that seems to stir endless curiosity among 
the students' American peers. "My mother had six sisters and 
two brothers, but I'm used to being alone," says Yao. "I don't 
mind staying alone on Saturday night. I don't have the idea 
that I have to go somewhere." To bring Chinese together 
on the scale of the New Year's gathering can be, he observes, 
"a tough job." 

For some Chinese, a shared passion can open the door 
to friendships with Americans that transcend the superficial. 
In the last year, the upbeat Yunwen began rooming with 
three Americans, fellow members of the women's crew team. 
Beyond their common sport, the students found common 
ground in something beloved by all — food. Under her tute- 
lage they turn out Chinese feasts, says Yunwen, who is dating 
an American. But their preferred fare, the Szechuan specialty 
known as the hot pot, is still a tough sell, the students say. 
And the notion of dessert is quite un-Chinese. Those almond 
cookies that turn up as the coda to every Chinese meal here? 
"They don't exist in China," says Yunwen. Fortune cookies 
are also an American invention. 

As the students polish off a platter of watercress with 
garlic sauce, they weigh in on a staple of American culture 
that horrifies them — the hot dog. "And if you try to eat the 
sausage without the roll it's just terrible," says Yao as the rest 
of the students wince. "When I first ate your salad I thought 
it was kind of weird," says Yuliang. "The sauce is sour, and in 
China we don't eat a lot of raw things. But there is something 
I really like — your clam chowder." 

"Americans love our food," says Yuliang. "And my 
American friends are very kind, but I just don't know how 



32 Transformations \ Spring 2011 



From left, front row: Chunyan Li, GS; Yunwen Sun '13; Xiaokong Yu, GS. 
Back row: Yao Zheng, GS; Zijian Xia '13; Yuliang Sun, GS. 



to keep the friendships going." All agree that one way to 
bridge the culture gap is through sports. Yuliang joined the 
tennis club. Yao was on the swim team in high school and 
swam every day in China as an undergraduate in Shanghai. 
In order to swim there, he had to make his case before the 
university administration. "Getting permission to swim was 
very official there," he explains. "So when I came here I did 
it the same way, going to my advisor and telling him that I'm 
a good student and would like to swim. He said, 'J ust g° P ut 
on your suit and jump in.' In America people do sports for 
fun," adds Yunwen. "But in China if you want to do sports, 
you have to be very serious." 

When it comes to American spectator sports, the stu- 
dents are perplexed. Football? "I just don't understand it," 
says Yunwen. "It's kind of too physical," adds Yuliang, whose 
idea of a gripping contest is the U.S. Open. Baseball? Kind of 
boring, the Chinese students agree, though Yunwen is drawn 
to the grace of basketball. Yuliang's pro basketball education 
came when he was shouted down for wearing a Celtics shirt 
in Los Angeles, where he was visiting his two sisters. 

The students share good-natured laughter as they chime 
in with random observations about American cultural quirks. 
All bespectacled, they wonder aloud why young Americans 
"barely wear glasses." "Americans will always hold the door 
open for you," says Yunwen, who comes from the city of 
Jinan in Shandong Province. "But in China there are so 
many people everywhere that doors are just kept open," adds 
Xiaokong Yu, a shy graduate student majoring in civil engi- 
neering. "When I got here everything felt so empty," she says. 
"Empty university, empty city." Graduate student Chunyan 
Li, 23, who arrived here from Zhejiang Province in August to 
study operation design and leadership, was startled by how 
few people are out walking along Worcester's roads. "In 
China, people are everywhere," she says. 

Rampant talk of Tiger Mothers notwithstanding, the 
Chinese students would like to dispel the myth that they are 
far more disciplined in their study habits than their American 
counterparts. At least at WPI, "The Americans work very 
hard. As hard as us," says Yuliang. But Chinese tend to be 
early risers — not Americans' strong suit. And they generally 
aren't fond of alcohol, so hangovers are not an issue. 




"In China all classes are in the daytime," adds Yuliang. 
In class, at least for the first few months and despite profes- 
sors' efforts to be helpful and clear, Chinese might take all 
day to read a chapter that Americans consume in a few 
hours, says Yuliang. "My listening is not as good as my 
writing," adds Zijian Xia, 19, who adds that it takes time 
to grow accustomed to speaking out in class. "In China we 
ask our questions after class," says Zijian, a chemistry major 
who calls himself Donnie. Their professors are patient and 
helpful, add the students, and some, like Yuliang, get help 
from student volunteers at the writing center. 

"The professors know what they're doing," says Yao. 
"They put you on the edge but they don't push you off the 
cliff," he adds, comparing graduate school to "slavery." But 
he grins when he says it, and the students say they find more 
hands-on opportunities here than in China, particularly in 
the lab. "Students are more equal to professors in the lab 
here," says Xiaokong, who is working toward a doctorate. 
"As a freshman I work in the biochemistry lab," says Zijian. 
"In China, that's impossible." 

While subtle cultural differences exist among the stu- 
dents, who come from different regions of their vast home- 
land, there is one obsession they inevitably share: how to call 
China, cheaply and often. From international calling cards to 
Skype, they are forever tweaking the formula after being 
nearly bankrupted that first difficult month far away from 
home. "I Skype three to four times a week now, but in the 
beginning I called my mother every day," says Chunyan, who 
plans a visit home in May. 

Yao tells a story of seeing a new arrival from China, a 
male graduate student, who felt so overwhelmed by the tran- 
sition that he broke down sobbing. That was extremely 
unusual, says Yao. For his part, and for the students gathered 
this brisk evening, there are no regrets. "We're having fun," 
says Yunwen. "And we all are confident we can do this." D 



Chinese prefer structured gatherings, communal cooking, 
and games to freewheeling encounters. 



Transformations \ Spring 2011 33 



LASS NOTES 



Stay connected. Material for Class Notes comes from newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases, and information 
supplied by alumni. Production schedules vary; please allow up to 6 months for your note to appear in print. We welcome your 
news by Web: wpi.edu/+Transformations Email: alumni-editor@wpi.edu Fax: 508-831-5820 Mail: Alumni Editor, 
Transformations, WPI, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280 



Irving Gerber '44, owner of Fine 
Woodworkers of Boston, has retired. He 
and his wife, Shirley, celebrated their 65th 
wedding anniversary last year. 




The family history of Kim Woodbury '44 

was on display at Gordon Library, in an 
exhibit called " 1 20 Years of Fine Printing: 
The Story of Woodbury and Company." 
Kim was interviewed about the company's 
founding and the many generations of 
Woodburys at WPI. (See the video at 
wpi.edu/-i-library). The WPI community 
mourned the death of Kim's wife, Betty, 
who died Oct. 19, 2010. 

Daniel Lacedonia '46, a 50-year 

resident of East Longmeadow, Mass., was 
chosen as grand marshal for the town's 
2010 Fourth of July parade. 

Albert Soloway '48 offered a historical 
perspective on the chemistry curriculum at 
the U.S. Naval Academy in a letter to 
Chemical & Engineering News. At the 
height of World War II, Soloway placed 
second in the "plebe chemistry" class of 
900, due to his superior chemistry back- 
ground. With no other chemistry courses 
available at the academy, he elected to 
return to WPI to complete his BS degree. 

Michael Hoechstetter '53 teaches 
chemistry at Columbus State Community 
College in Ohio, where he has been an 
adjunct instructor for six years. 

Philip Simon '53 and his wife, Pat, live 
in Vista, Calif. He retired from IBM after 
35 years, and spent 1 7 years as a profes- 
sor of engineering and computer science 
at National University in San Diego. 

William Hills '54 blogs on topics from 
the BP oil spill to income taxes and immi- 
gration at Op.EdNews.com. He is the re- 
tired president and founder of Hills R&D Inc. 



Walter Kirk '54 writes from West Palm 
Beach, Fla., "I am safely into my 87th year 
and all is well." 

Milton Meckler '54 has published 
several papers in collaboration with the 
University of Chicago and the Sustainable 
IT Ecosystems Lab at Hewlett-Packard 
Laboratories. His company, Design Build 
Systems (DBS), is commercializing compo- 
nents for a vapor recompression absorber 
that that improves cooling system effi- 
ciency. Milt and his wife, Marlys, have 
been active in preserving the historic 
district of St. Petersburg, Fla., where they 
are homeowners in the former Huntington 
Hotel, built in the 1 890s. 

John Hanks '55 is the author of Boy 
P.O.W. (Blackrosewriting.com), based on 
his childhood years in the Philippines and 
the impact of World War II. 

Bob Stempel '55 was elected to the 
board of directors of Genesis Fluid Solu- 
tions Holdings. 

Alfred Barry '57 sold his manufactur- 
ing company, Stanlok Corp., to his son, 
Ai Barry '77. He is now semi-retired 
and living in Worcester. 

Bob Galligan '57 came out of retire- 
ment to teach part time at Grand View 
College in Des Moines, Iowa. 

Joseph Bronzino '59 delivered a pub- 
lic lecture on the technological advances in 
biomedical engineering at the University of 
New Haven. He is Vernon Roosa Professor 
of Applied Science at Trinity College. 

Roger Kuenzel '59 plays banjo in 
the Irem Shrine String Band, providing 
entertainment for the Fourth of July and 
Memorial Day parades near the New 
York-Pennsylvania border. "People come 
from a 50-mile radius to see us," he writes. 

Richard Ronskavitz '59 retired 
1 3 years ago after serving 20 years as 
director of the Broward County, Fla., Traf- 
fic Engineering Division. Prior to that, he 
held the same title for the city of Hartford, 
Conn. His wife, Louise, died in 2008, 
leaving their two sons. He now resides 
in Pompano Beach. 



Richard Davis '61 and his wife, Dorothy, 
retired after 1 years as innkeepers and 
owners of the Pedigrift House in Ashland, 
Ore. "We now spend our winters in Cape 
Canaveral, Fla., and return to Ashland 
each summer to volunteer with the Oregon 
Shakespeare Festival," he writes. "During 
tax season, I volunteer with the AARP help- 
ing prepare returns." 

Jesse Erlich '62 was named in the 201 1 
edition of 8esf Lawyers" . He is a partner at 
Burns & Levinson LLP. 

Ed Scherer '63 retired from an executive 
post with Southern California Edison and 
relocated to Boynton Beach, Fla., to be 
near his family. 

Phil Baker '65 is COO of Axion Power 
International, a Delaware company that is 
developing advanced lead-carbon batter- 
ies and energy-storage technology. 

Hutch Wyman '65 lives in Georgia and 
has been retired since 2006. "Two grand- 
children keep Sue and me busy," he 
writes. "I'm also a member of the Stone 
Mountain Barbershop Chorus." Hutch is 
the brother of Jon Wyman '75, and son 
of the late Bill Wyman '35. 

After working for GE, Cooper Power Sys- 
tems, and Square D, Phil Hopkinson 

'66 formed his own power transformer 
consulting business, HVOLT Inc., in 2001 . 
A registered PE in North Carolina, he 
holds 1 5 patents, has authored numerous 
papers, and is an IEEE life fellow. 

John Lauterbach '66 was appointed to 
the U.S. FDA Tobacco Products Scientific 
Advisory Committee. His company, Lauter- 
bach & Assoc. LLC, based in Macon, Ga., 
provides consulting services worldwide on 
the chemistry and toxicology of tobacco, 
tobacco products, and tobacco smoke. 
He has presented papers at the American 
Chemical Society's national meeting in 
Boston, the CORESTA congress in Edin- 
burgh, Scotland, and the Tobacco Science 
Research Conference in Hilton Head, N.C. 
His 1 2-year-old son, Sebastian, a budding 
scientist and engineer, serves as junior 
librarian and junior toxicologist for the 
company. 



34 Transformations \ Spring 2011 



WPI HOMECOMING 2010 




ALUMNI AWARD 
RECIPIENTS 



Ed £/i<°/u/7a 



Odto&e.)- 1-2, 20\0 




Pau/ CboJcJ; 





Jiona Ma 




Robert H. Goddard Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement 

Edward Cheung '85 was recognized for his work as the principal engineer for NASA's Hubble Space 
Telescope Project. 

Paul Chodak III '85 was recognized for his work in the energy industry, currently as president and 
chief operating officer of AEP's Indiana Michigan Power. 

Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement 

Leo Gestetner '95 was honored for his record of innovation and entrepreneurship, currently as the 
founder of Heath Capital, based in Los Angeles. 

Jiong Ma '90/MS was honored for her impressive career in venture capital, currently as a partner at 



Braemar Energy Ventures in Boston. 



John Boynton Young Alumni Award for Service to WPI 

Karen Tegan Padir '90, '95/MBA was recognized for her outstanding commitment to WPI as a trustee 
and for bringing pride to her alma mater through her remarkable career in information technology. 



Transformations \ Spring 2011 3 5 



== CLASS NOTES 



Bookshelf 





Recent and new publications by WPI alumni, faculty, staff 

Multiphysics Modeling Using COMSOL : A First Principles Approach 

by Roger Pryor '68 Jones & Bartlett Learning 

Pryor offers a hands-on introduction to the art and science of 
computerized modeling for physical systems and devices. The 
guidebook uses a step-by-step methodology with practice models 
that readers can build and run. The examples are linked to the 
fundamental laws of physics, using a first principles analysis 
approach. A supplemental DVD is included, with reference 
documents and executable copies of the models discussed in 
the book. Pryor, a COMSOL certified consultant, is vice president 
of research for Pryor Knowledge Systems Inc.. 

Chouette and More: The World's First and Only Backgammon Sci-fi 
Soap Opera (Book on CD) 

by Mary Hickey '77 GammonVillage 

Two-time champion of the U.S. Backgammon Open Mary Hickey 
has compiled all 44 installments of the monthly column she wrote for 
GammonVillage.com until 2007. Starting with the basic principles of 
chouette (a backgammon variation for rotating teams of three or 
more players), her commentaries progress to strategy and psychol- 
ogy. Starting in Chapter 1 1 , the reader becomes part of an ongoing 
plotline that involves eccentric opponents, exotic locales, and a time 
warp. Hickey has numerous tournament victories to her credit. 

Leading Change in a Web 2.1 World: How ChangeCasting Builds 
Trust, Creates Understanding, and Accelerates Organizational Change 

by Jackson Nickerson '84 Brookings Institution Press 

Leading Change "ChangeCasting" is Nickerson's term for leveraging Web 2.0 technol- 
Web 2.1 World gy to unlock and accelerate change within an organization. His book 
outlines a new combination of leadership processes and guidelines, 
drawing examples from Fortune 1 000 firms and Barack Obama's 2008 
presidential campaign. Nickerson is Frahm Family Professor of Organi- 
zation and Strategy at Washington University Olin Business School, 
and Senior Scholar, Governance Studies, at the Brookings Institution. He 
also serves as director of Brookings Executive Education, a partnership 
HooonNkMwn between the university and the institution. 

The Participatory Museum 

by Nina Simon '03 CreateSpace 

Web 2.0 is more than a buzzword, argues Simon, principal of 
nSs ui Museum 2.0, a design consultancy that helps cultural institutions 

create participatory, dynamic, audience-centered programs. The same 
"architecture of participation" that encourages us to generate, share, 
and curate content online can be brought to museums, libraries, and 
other public venues, transforming visitors from passive viewers to 
active contributors who help shape and enhance the experience. Simon 
describes the principals and practicalities of participation, and offers 
entry points for the bold and the cautious to embrace the possibilities for 
transformation. The book is available for purchase as a paperback or a PDF download, 
and a complete, free version is viewable online at her website, particpatorymuseum.org. 




PARjiaQaaor 






Don Nitsche '66 writes, "After a career 
as a pension actuary, I retired from Mass 
Mutual in May 2009. Nancy and I have 
been married for 40 years (we met in my 
junior year at Tech). Our son lives in Las 
Vegas, and we visit our three grandchil- 
dren out there as much as possible. Our 
daughter teaches math in a public school 
system near Boston." 

Eugene Wilusz '66, an authority on 
chemical and biological protective cloth- 
ing, works at the U.S. Army Natick (Mass.) 
Soldier Research, Development and Engi- 
neering Center. His book, Military Textiles, 
(Woodhead Publishing) reviews recent 
research in areas such as damage resist- 
ance, comfort, camouflage, and flame 
protection. 

Curt Carlson '67 was appointed to the 
National Advisory Council on Innovation 
and Entrepreneurship to support President 
Obama's drive to develop policies that fos- 
ter entrepreneurship and create economic 
growth by bringing new ideas to the 
marketplace. 

After working for MIT's Draper and Lincoln 
laboratories, Robert Kennedy '67 has 

a second career as a professor of business 
and technology at Massasoit Community 
College. 

Lester Small '67 retired in July 2010, 
after 42 years with the U.S. Air Force 
Research Lab at Wright-Patterson AFB. 

2010 Kalenian Award winner Rich 
Sadowski '68 has invented a concen- 
trating photovoltaic (CVP) system that can 
quadruple the output of commercially avail- 
able solar roof panels. His Solar Joules 
"plug and play" modules, built from recy- 
cled automobile parts, reflect photons onto 
roof panels and track the path of the sun. 
A WPI MBA project team is evaluating 
commercialization routes. 

Tony Leketa '69 

was appointed presi- 
dent of Parsons Water 
& Infrastructure Inc. 
in Pasadena, Calif. 
He has been working 
in the firm's federal 



7T1 



Jj 



government group since 2005. 

Ed Mierzejewski '69 retired as director 
of the University of South Florida Center for 
Urban Transportation Research and joined 
the Tampa office of Gannett Fleming Inc. 
as director of transportation research. He 
and his wife, Aline, celebrated their 40th 
anniversary last year with a three-week 
trip to Italy. 



Bill Hillner '70 is working in Nakhodka, 
Russia, as senior construction manager of 
a large offshore production project for 
ExxonMobil. In his 34 years with the 
company, he has had several assignments 
in Europe, as well as Thailand, Qatar, 
Angola, Nigeria, and various U.S. loca- 
tions, including Alaska. 

Phil Warren '70 and his wife, Tammy, 
were married in 2008 and recently moved 
into a new home in Crestwood, Ky. Phil is 
vice president of Papercone Corp., a pro- 
ducer of specialty envelopes. 

Paul Geary '71 was reappointed U.S. 
magistrate judge for the federal court in 
Tulsa, Okla. His three children are working 
toward graduate/undergraduate degrees. 

Mike Ingemi '71 is a senior staff elec- 
trical engineer at APC-MGE. He lives in 
Norwood, Mass. 

Bruce Beverly '73 retired from Haley & 
Aldrich Inc. in May 2010. After celebrat- 
ing with a cross-country motorcycle ride, 
he started Beverly Management Consulting 
in Auburn, Mass. 

Urban Engineering, the firm of Edward 
D'Alba '73, celebrated its 50th anni- 
versary in 2010 and earned ranking in 
Philadelphia's Top Workplaces. 

John Goulet '73 returned to WPI in 
1993 to join the Mathematical Sciences 
faculty. He teaches undergraduate calculus 
and linear algebra. "I'm in charge of the 
Master of Mathematics for Educators (MME) 
program," he writes, "as well as an under- 
graduate teacher preparation program." 

Roger Lavallee '73 

was appointed senior 
program manager, en- 
rollment management 
and marketing, at the 
Hartford campus of 
RPI. His responsibilities 
include interfacing with key executives in 
Fortune 1000 companies to identify corpo- 
rate leaders for career development and 
enrollment at Rensselaer. 

David Demers '74 ('84 MS FPE) was 
appointed to the NFPA Standards Council. 
For the past 27 years, Dave has been a 
member of the Massachusetts Board of Fire 
Prevention Regulations, serving as chair- 
man for the past seven years. 

Bob Lindberg '74 has served as presi- 
dent of the National Institute of Aerospace 
since 2004. Last year he was elected pres- 
ident of the board of directors of the 
Virginia Air & Space Center. 





Stephen Page '74, a 

founding shareholder of 
Page, Mrachek, Fitzger- 
ald & Rose, was named 
in the Intellectual Prop- 
erty and Commercial 
Litigation categories in 
The Best Lawyers in America 201 1 . His 
Florida practice includes pharmaceutical 
companies, athletic corporations, and 
healthcare organizations. 

Vicki Cowart '75 received the 2010 
Ian Campbell Medal for Superlative 
Service to Geosciences from the American 
Geological Society. The former state geolo- 
gist for Colorado, she helped found the 
Association for Women Geoscientists and 
was the first woman president of the Asso- 
ciation for American State Geologists. She 
is president and CEO of Planned Parent- 
hood of the Rocky Mountains. 

Wilson "Bill" Dobson '75 retired from 
Binary Engineering Assoc, the consulting 
firm he founded in 1984. He writes that 
he does not plan to give up engineering 
altogether. "I will put my engineering and 
scientific knowledge to use in assisting in 
the defense of indigent individuals being 
crushed under the jackboot of the state 
criminal justice system." 

Robert Horner '75 was appointed 
director of public policy for the Illuminating 
Engineering Society. 

William Jagoda '75 earned his com- 
mercial pilot certificate. He lives in Groton, 
Conn., and works for Electric Boat. 




Judy Nitsch '75 received an honorary 
doctorate from Massachusetts Maritime 
Academy for her contributions to engineer- 
ing and her efforts to encourage others to 
pursue engineering careers. 

Oliver Smith '75 has been in medical 
product design for more than 30 years, 
focusing on non-invasive ventilation 
devices. He works for Philips Healthcare 
in Carlsbad, Calif. 

Jon Wyman '75 lives on Wyman Pond, 
in Westminster, Mass., and works for IAP 
Worldwide Services at Hanscom AFB. He 
has five grandchildren in Massachusetts 
and Hawaii. 



Terry Cirone '76 was appointed vice 
president of health, environment, safety, 
and security of The Chlorine Institute. 

Jim Hall '76 joined Leerink Swann as 
a managing director in the Strategic 
Advisory and Consulting Group. 

Jonathan Rourke '76 is CEO of Viacor 
in Wilmington, Mass. 

Neal Wright '76 is a vice president in 
the Virginia Beach office of Dewberry, 
where he leads the Department of Defense 
market segment. 

George Keeler '77 is pastor of the 
North Springfield Baptist Church in 
Vermont. He and his wife, Fran, have 
two children. 

Congratulations to John Osowski '77, 

who was elected Civil Engineer of the Year 
by the Rochester Section of ASCE. He is 
director of planning/construction at The 
College at Brockport, part of the State 
University of New York system. 

Jeffrey Tingle '77, featured in the 
Summer 2010 issue of Transformations, 
is now vice president of software develop- 
ment for PolyRemedy. 

Peter Rowden '78 was promoted to 
vice president, corporate manufacturing 
operations, at Hologic Inc. He was recently 
elected to a second term as a Becker 
College trustee. 

PBill Walton '78 was 
recognized as 2010 
Civil Engineer of the 
Year by the ASCE 
Illinois Section. He 
works for GEI Consult- 
ants, Midwest Region. 

Ernie Cormier '81 was appointed presi- 
dent and CEO at Nexage. 

Ted Nevells '81 joined the project man- 
agement team of RF Walsh Collaborative 
Partners in Boston. 

Frank Polito '81 was named Citizen 
of the Year by the Atkinson (N.H.) Lions 
Club. He recently stepped down from his 
role as town moderator and chairman of 
the Zoning Board of Adjustment after 1 8 
years on the board. His son, David, is a 
junior at WPI. 

David Gillespie '82 is CEO of Aleut 
Corp. 

Stephen Kaneb '82 was elected a 
trustee of The Catholic University of Amer- 
ica. He and his wife, Andrea (Fielding) 

'84, live in South Hampton, N.H., with 
their five children. They return to WPI for 
a football game each year. 



Transformations \ Spring 201 1 37 




Now is the time to make a difference. 



We understand that you want every charitable gift you make to be 
meaningful and have impact. 

In these complex times, we know that making the most of your philan- 
thropy means thinking ahead. We know, too, that the best planned gifts 
are simple, straightforward, and designed to benefit WPI and you, our 
dedicated supporters. 

All gifts are important — to you and to WPI ... so whether your gift is for 
general support, scholarships, or research, you help ensure the university 
will continue to deliver a top-notch educational experience. 



Bequests: 

Simple, meaningful, personal 



Gift annuities: 

A retirement resource 



Beneficiary designations 
of IRAs and life insurance: 

An easy, tax-efficient, and often 
overlooked planning opportunity 






Act today. We can help you make an important difference in 201 1 

Simply contact us by phone or email. 

For a confidential consultation, contact Audrey Klein-Leach, executive director 
of planned giving, at 508-831-5076 or akleinleach@wpi.edu. 



Deborah Chichlowski Luszey '82 

teaches math in Hudson, N.H. She 
attended the National Council of Teachers 
of Mathematics Affiliate Leaders Confer- 
ence in Reston, Va., last summer. 

John Sansoucy '82 joined Blackstone 
Management & Consulting as head of the 
Lean Manufacturing Practice. He lives in 
Douglas, Mass., with his wife, Patricia. 

Mark Scott '83 continues at Sikorsky 
Aircraft, where he is now technical lead 
for rotor systems. His homebuilt four-place 
airplane project is nearing completion. 
Mark's eldest son, Erik, is a member of 
the WPI Class of 2014. 




Jean (Salek) Camp '84 writes from 
Hawaii, "David and I have been living on 
Kaua'i for about 10 years and still love it. 
My project management consulting work 
has slowed down, which is giving me 
more time to enjoy recreational outrigger 
paddling in Hanalei and eating pizza 
made in our outdoor wood-fired brick 
oven. Traveling to visit family and friends 
is a welcome escape." 



IRE WPI 



Robert Trocki '84 was promoted to senior 
director of actuarial pricing at Fallon Com- 
munity Health Plan in Worcester. He lives 
in Shrewsbury with his wife, Cindy, and 
three children. 



Ed Cheung, a 

native of Aruba 
and a subject of 
the Kingdom of 
the Netherlands, 
was knighted by 
Queen Beatrix in 
June 2010. He 
received the 
Orde van de Neder- 
landse Leeuw 
(Order of the 
Netherlands Lion), 
the Kingdom's highest civilian honor, for 
his work on the Hubble Space Telescope 
and his efforts to motivate and inspire inter- 
est in science and education among island 
youth in his homeland. Sir Cheung is the 
first Caribbean-born citizen to receive 
the honor. 

Paul Chodak recently transitioned to 
Indiana Michigan Power as president 
and COO. 

Dave LaBranche joined the federal civil 
service in 2008 for a five-year appoint- 
ment as a Highly Qualified Expert (HQE). 
"I expect to take a permanent civilian posi- 
tion this year, if all goes well," he writes. 
"I am an executive in the Department of 
Defense, working on geospatial technology 
policy and business enterprise integration." 




Hire a WPI alumnus, new graduate, or 
student and you'll gain someone who 
globally minded, collaborative, innova 
ready to contribute from Day One... 

In other words, hire someone like YOL 



Career Development Center 

employer@wpi.edu 





lepders + innovators + 



CAREER 



wHaila 



By Connie Horwitz, Associate Director, 
Career Development Center 



Your Career Strategy on a Global Scale 

How many of us could 
have imagined when 
we were students that 
our professional work 
might entail developing 
a routine comfort level 
communicating with 
people from countries 
other than our own? Perhaps the communi- 
cations are direct, with members of your 
team. Perhaps it's participating in confer- 
ence calls that now include an overseas con- 
nection. Perhaps you are communicating 
with foreign vendors that provide services 
and products to your organization. Regard- 
less, the world of your job, your career, your 
industry has no doubt stepped outside the 
boundaries of the United States in some 
fashion. The odds that this trend will stop 
and revert to a more insular past are proba- 
bly slim to none. And the likelihood that 
people will continue to see changes in their 
job descriptions is going to increase as the 
ability to understand global business be- 
comes more critical to succeeding in one's 
role. So, what does this ultimately mean for 
everyone? 

The adage "The best defense is a good of- 
fense" may truly apply here. Rather than 
wearing blinders that support the hope of a 
short-term trend, building a career plan that 
incorporates the possibility of some globally 
driven impact affecting your work is smart 
and practical. Looking at your industry's 
trends toward global business relations can 
help you identify where your skills, apti- 
tudes, and strengths fit in the picture. Ask 
yourself what you lack in meeting the re- 
quirements of a role that may demand more 
comfort with international communications. 
Seek opportunities to help you acquire the 
necessary skills; for example, participating 
on international calls, traveling for an over- 
seas project, or researching international 
vendors. If you are part of a small business, 
applying this strategy to your business as a 
whole may help lead your company to even 
more profitable survival in the global arena. 

So, as you contemplate the wisdom of ca- 
reer planning for a global future, consider 
your readiness for this — with WPI educating 
students from more than 70 countries outside 
the United States, you may soon be commu- 
nicating on an international call. From your 
desk. With a WPI alum. 

Contact Connie at cdcalumni@wpi.edu 



L. L A O O 



NOTES 



J Christopher Papile 
was inducted into the 
Academic Hall of Fame 
at Archbishop Williams 
High School in Brain- 
tree, Mass. He is a 
chemical engineer and 
the chief technology officer at Catalyte 
LLC, a clean energy consulting firm. 

Jo Anne Shatkin is CEO of CLF Ven- 
tures, the nonprofit consulting affiliate of 
the Conservation Law Foundation. She 
previously served as managing director. 



1986 



Barry C. Fougere joined BigBelly Solar 
as chief operating officer. 

John Jezowski is 

senior vice president 
and relationship man- 
ager at Webster Finan- 
cial Advisors, based in 
the firm's Hartford, 
Conn., office. 





Mark your calendars now! 
Activities are open to all alumni. 

Classes celebrating anniversary years: 
1936, 1941, 1946, 1951, 1956, 
1961, 1966. 1971. 1976, 1981 




Brian Teague formed 
Patent Law of Virginia 
PLLC, a Richmond- 
based national firm that 
represents institutional 
and individual clients. 



Michael Thompson is North East 
Region sales manager at Kammann USA. 



Daniel Barry 

(left, with NASA 
Astronaut Greg 
Johnson) was 
awarded NASA's 
Silver Snoopy, 
a special honor 
that recognizes 
outstanding 
achievements related to human flight safety 
and/or mission success. The award is 
presented personally by NASA astronauts. 
In his 22 years with David Clark Co. in 
Worcester, Barry has made innumerable 
contributions to the design, development, 
qualification, manufacture, and operational 
support of astronaut protective equipment. 
He currently serves as vice president and 
director of research and development. 




Allen Bonde writes, "I am a co-founder 
and CMO of social marketing software 
start-up Offerpop, based in NYC (I'm still 
outside Boston). We launched in June 
2010. I'm always happy to hear from 
alums in the Internet or consulting biz." 

Carleen Maitland is on leave from 
her position as associate professor of 
information sciences and technology at 
Penn State to serve as a program manager 
in the Office of International Science and 
Engineering at the U.S. National Science 
Foundation in Arlington, Va. She manages 
grants to foster research collaboration 
between U.S. and Middle Eastern scientists 
and engineers. 



1989 



Linwood Bradford was promoted 
to president and CEO of Conning & 
Company. 



199O 



Paul Dombrowski received the Morgan 
Operational Solutions Award from the 
Water Environment Federation (WEF), an 
international technical and educational 
water-quality organization. He works for 
Woodard & Curran. 

Karen Tegan Padir joined EnterpriseDB 
as vice president of products and marketing. 



W^I^Ilumni <§• Reunion Weekend 

JUNE 2-5, 2011 



Thursday, June 2 

> Annual Alumni Golf Tournament, 
Stow Acres Country Club 

Friday, June 3 

> WPI Impact: Words from the Provost 

> Alumni College Sessions 

> Campus Fair 

> Alden Society Luncheon 

> New England Clambake, 1962-201 1 

> 50-Year Associates Reception and Dinner 
(Classes of 1961 and earlier) 

> Casino Night 



Saturday, June 4 

> A Conversation with President Berkey 

> Alumni College Sessions 

> Reunion Parade 

Sunday, June 5 

> Jazz Brunch 

> Class of 1961 Remembrance Event 

Please remember to update 
your email address at 

alumniconnect.wpi.edu 

or contact us for assistance. 



CHECK YOUR MAIL SOON FOR COMPLETE REGISTRATION INFORMATION. 
Questions? Please call the WPI Alumni Relations Office at 508-831-5600 or log on to alumni.wpi.edu/alumniweekend. 




From the Alumni Association President... 

I'm happy to share with you an update from 
the Alumni Association and the Office of 
Alumni Relations on activities in 2010, and 
highlights of exciting events planned for 201 1. 

Homecoming Recognition Awards — 
and Honoring Tuna 

The Alumni Association honored five alumni 
at Homecoming (see page 35). They join 
those who were recognized at Reunion for 
their professional achievement and their service to WPI. 

Following the Rope Pull, about 200 students, alumni, and 
friends gathered to honor Bill "Tuna" Trask as he received the 
first-ever Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award. 
Sharing reminiscences about Bill's impact on their lives 
and careers were Tom Driscoll '11, Bill Cunningham 77, 
Steve Rubin 74, Janet Richardson, and Mary "Ma" Fell. State 
Senator Karen Spilka (who's married to Joel Loitherstein 73) 
presented Bill with a proclamation from the Commonwealth 
recognizing his contributions to the WPI community. 

In conjunction with this event, the Alumni Association 
hosted an online auction where many alumni donated and 
purchased items in support of the WPI Alumni Association 
Scholarship Fund. Net proceeds from the event to honor Bill 
and the online auction totaled $1 1,000, which will be used 
for student scholarships. 

The Alumni Association plans to host another online auc- 
tion in conjunction with Homecoming 201 1 to raise money 
for the scholarship fund. If you'd like to donate to or assist with 
the auction, contact Aubrey Valley, associate director of alumni 
relations, at avalley@wpi.edu. 

Class Ambassadors 

In partnership with the Office of Alumni Relations, the Alumni 
Association will be rolling out a Class Ambassador program. 
We are looking for alumni interested in supporting their classes 
in this role. Many of you already serve as members of your class 
leadership and reunion committees or were part of the former 
Class Board of Directors, and we hope you will continue in 



your role as part of the Class Ambassador program. For those 
not yet involved, this is a great opportunity to give back and 
to connect with your classmates. Additional details will be 
published in The Bridge and future issues of Transformations. 

Alumni Global Engagement (AGE) 

The AGE initiative focuses on building connections with 
alumni who do not have the luxury of returning to campus for 
events. This program will expand the efforts of the successful 
Regional Clubs program and will include technology solutions 
and various communication methods to build connections 
among alumni and with WPI. More info is forthcoming. 

Additional Involvement 

Another way to become involved with and support WPI 
is the STAR Mentoring program — an effort that matches 
alumni with students interested in benefitting from the profes- 
sional and life experience of alumni. No matter where you live, 
you may participate; contact Connie Horowitz, associate direc- 
tor of the Career Development Center, at chorwitz@wpi.edu. 

Thinking of traveling outside the United States soon? The 
Alumni Association Travel program invites you to join fellow 
alumni and visit a WPI Project Center. The Alumni Association 
has partnered with Collette Vacations to offer several trips to 
exciting locations where WPI has project centers. Find out 
more about this travel package at www.wpi.edu/+alumnitravel. 
By participating in this program, you will support a major ini- 
tiative of the Alumni Association — providing scholarships to 
students. Ten percent of every trip booked goes to the Alumni 
Association scholarship fund. 

In closing, I ask that each of you consider getting more 
involved — whether by STAR Mentoring or the travel program, 
by attending an event in your local area, or by returning to 
campus for Homecoming or Reunion. I am confident you will 
have a fantastic time! Write to me at joyce.kline@alum.wpi.edu 
to discuss ways to become involved. 

Regards, 

Joyce S. Kline '87 



Patrick Welge is president of EMCO 
Maier Corp. in Columbus, Ohio. "EMCO 
is one of Europe's premier machine tool 
builders, and the Columbus location is our 
North American headquarters," he writes. 

1991 

Gudmundur Gudmundsson (MS) is 
vice president of science and technology at 
Kerecis, based in the company's Reykjavik, 
Iceland, office. 



Edward Hunt qualified as a Certified 
Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor 
(CIRA). He is principal of Hunt Service 
Solutions in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 

Susan (Chilvers) Jones is manager 
of business analysis at the Association of 
American Medical Colleges in Washing- 
ton, D.C. She, her husband, Keith, and 
their son Parker are thrilled to announce 
the birth of their second son, Mason Keith, 
on March 30, 2010, in Annapolis, Md. 



Coast Guard Rear Adm. Roy Nash is 
deputy federal on-scene coordinator for 
the U.S. Government's response to the 
Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf 
of Mexico. 

Megan (formerly Michael) Wallent is a 
manager in the GFS Manageability Serv- 
ices Group at Microsoft. She discussed 
the workplace aspects of her transition 
from male to female in a Harvard Business 
Review article called "Changing Gender 
on the Job." 



Transformations \ Spring 201 1 41 



= CLASS NOTES 




Ed Connor '92, dean of admissions at WPI, recently moved to Stow, Mass., with 
his wife, Jen, (former assistant director of alumni relations at WPI), and their son, Sean, 
who'll turn 3 in May. At a summer gathering hosted by Ed and Jen for WPI buddies 
and their families are, clockwise from back row, Sue (Moser) Roberts, Ed Connor, 
Jim Uzdarwin, Tony Chiulli, Mike Bristol '93, Bruce Yurczak '93, Michelle 
Thackston '93, Mike Thibodeau '93, Dan Eaton '93, and Lou Roberts "It had 
been quite a while since we had seen some of our friends, and a good time was had by 
all," says Ed. "At one point we counted 21 people in the pool!" 



1993 



Alfred Grasso (MS CS) was elected vice 
chair of the board of AFCEA International 
(Armed Forces Communications and Elec- 
tronics Associates). 

Jon Larrabee works for Kochek Co. as 
a design engineer for turf and irrigation 
products. 

^■^^^ 1 Sam Tetlow was 

jjjj^^^^ recruited to the role of 

jHfe^l chief business officer for 
Integrated Laboratory 

^M Systems, of Research 

^k X Triangle Park, N.C. He 

Hft ^^J and his wife, Laura, 

reside in Raleigh. 

Jim White is campaigning to bring 
wOOstock — a variety show that bills itself 
as "3 hours of geeks + music" to Worces- 
ter. "I still live in the area, and it's high 
time Worcester was recognized as a geek 
city in its own right," he says. 



1994 



Sandor Becz was named head of global 
engineering for Lenze SE, a worldwide 
manufacturer of electronic and electromag- 
netic products for the automation industry. 
He lives in Tolland, Conn., with his wife, 
Michelle, and sons, Connor and Spencer. 

Ted Dysart was recognized by the 201 
NACD Directorship 1 00 for recruiters. 

Stephen Foskett is director of data 
practice for Contoural Inc. 



Dena (Niedzwiecki) Mechoso and 

her husband, Diego, proudly announce the 
birth of their second daughter, Alina Mia, 
born May 7, 2010, in Pasadena, Calif. 
Her big sister, Ella, just loves having a 
baby sister. 



1995 



Christopher Dyl is chief technology offi- 
cer at Turbine Inc., which was acquired by 
Warner Bros, last year. He also serves on 
WPI's IMGD Advisory Board. 

Jason Frost completed his internal medi- 
cine residency at St. Vincent Hospital in 
Worcester and joined his wife in Philadel- 
phia. In July he will begin a two-year Criti- 
cal Care Fellowship at Brown University. 

Eric Pearson was named vice president 
at Enterprise Bank in Lowell. 

Paul Seppanen, president of Energy 
Maintenance Service LLC, was a keynote 
speaker at the CEE Department's senior 
banquet in April. He also delivered a lec- 
ture for the WPI community on wind farm 
development and construction. 



1996 



Jenn (Healy) and Mark Anderson 

'95 welcomed their third child, Lucas 
James, on July 17, 2009. Mark is a senior 
fire protection engineer at Vermont Yankee. 
Jenn serves as the Risk Assurance HR 
leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers. They 
live in Chesterfield, N.H. 

Eric Maynard works for Jenike & Johan- 
son as a senior engineering consultant. 



Jesse Parent is still touring, performing 
with JoKyr and Jesster, and teaching 
improv comedy. He has also branched out 
into performance poetry and hopes to 
compete in the National Poetry Slam in 
Boston next summer. He works for Soren- 
son Media in Salt Lake City. 

Joe Schaffer founded an engineering 
and sustainability consultancy called 
Green Environmental Associates LLC 
(www.greenasc.com) with two partners. 
The new cross-disciplinary firm is based in 
the NYC metro area but services clients 
globally. 

Rebecca (Rubenstein) Sgambati is 

operations complex manager for the 
Valero Energy Corp.'s Benicia (Calif.) 
Refinery. She and her husband, David, 
have two children. 

Sean Squire is Naval Undersea Warfare 
Center (NUWC) technical advisor to the 
Commander of Pacific Submarine Forces 
(COMSUBPAC) at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 



1997 




Rebecca (Prince) 
Byrne was diagnosed 
with invasive breast 
cancer just 1 3 weeks 
into her first pregnancy. 
She chronicles her 
journey and celebrates 
the joyous birth of her daughter, Emelia 
Giovannina, in July 201 0, in her blog, My 
Boob and My Baby* Many WPI alumni 
supported her 2010 "Run, Walk or Crawl" 
5k fundraiser, which brought in more than 
$16,000 for the Dana Farber Cancer Insti- 
tute. For the 201 1 race date, watch her 
website, wontlaydown2cancer.com. 
*myboobandmybaby. blogspot. com 

Jim Goss is vice president of operations 
for Photobucket. 

Brent Modzelewski received the 2009 
Medical Design Gold Award for Excel- 
lence in Design for his TRUE2go blood 
glucose meter. He is director of engineer- 
ing for Home Diagnostics Inc. in Fort Laud- 
erdale, Fla. 

Steph Torrey and her husband, John 
Vuk, joyfully announce the birth of their 
first son, Elijah Mathew, on March 2, 
2010. "All are doing well!" she writes. 



1998 



Michelle (Prudente) and Bill Lucas 

welcomed the addition of Rachel Elizabeth 
to their family on Oct. 19, 2009. "Her big 
brother, Anthony, adores her," Michelle 
writes. They live in Quakertown, Pa. 



412 Transformations \ Spring 2011 



In the Public 



© 



U.S. Rep Todd Akin '70 (R-MO) was re-elected in 201 with 67.9% of the vote. A member of the House Armed Services Committee, 
he was quoted in the Wall Street Journal in support of the Marine Corp's Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) amphibious armored 
tank # Planet Green Network's "Dean of Invention" series, starring Dean Kamen '73, premiered last fall with eight episodes on 
cutting-edge technologies from microbots to organ regeneration # David Gewirtz '82 appeared on a History Channel special 
called "The President's Book of Secrets" to discuss the security of White House email and messaging technology # Professor Helen 
Vassallo '82 (MBA) was credited with breaking down barriers for women in recent profiles in Worcester Business Journal and the 
Telegram & Gazette. She joined the WPI faculty in 1967 as one of two female professors • Mark Macaulay '89 appeared on 
Renovation Nation with Steve Thomas to install a natural-gas Freewatt hydronic system. Mark is director of product engineering for Cli- 
mate Energy LCC, a joint venture of ECR International and Yankee Scientific # Matt Beaton '01 has been in the spotlight with his elec- 
tion to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the 1 1th Worcester district, and a "This New House" episode filmed at 
his passive solar home in Shrewsbury. "This is a Prius," he told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. "All the other houses around here are 
pickup trucks." • Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai '02 appeared in a Gap advertising video and Facebook campaign 
that featured celebrities raising money for their favorite charities # The Boston Herald ran a story about Neuron Robotics' co-founders 
Bob Breznak '08 and Kevin Harrington '08 # 1 st Lt Andrew McCarthy '08 appeared in the New York Times online 
video "A Year at War," which followed the First Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division during the surge in Afghanistan # 
NASA TV posted a launch-time video interview with Patrick Renaud '08, the Orbit 3 ISS pointing officer for the International Space 
Station flight control team # Nick Pelletier '09 was quoted in a Telegram & Gazette story on the 75th anniversary of the Phi 
Kappa Theta house and his role in re-opening the WPI chapter. 



Jeevan Ramapriya works in the Boston 
Statehouse as deputy chief of staff in the 
office of Senator Steven A. Baddour 
(D-Methuen). 



1999 



Charlie Atencio graduated from MIT in 
June 2010 with a master of science (SM) 
in engineering and management. 

Matthew Ducey and Jennifer 

Shemowat '00 were married Oct. 10, 
2009. He is a software engineer at Net- 
work Engines. She works for Fay, Spofford 
& Thorndike. 

John Lehane was promoted to project 
manager at Consigli Construction Co. 

2000 

Greg Jutkiewicz 

was co-producer and 
lighting designer for a 
Boston production of 
Harold Pinter's Betrayal 
last spring. Active in 
the Boston theatre 
scene, he established the Factory Theater 
in 2007 to specialize in small, intimate 
theatre productions. 

Alida Tei joined Winkenwerder Co. as a 
senior consultant for financial services and 
information technology. 

Matt Young has been with Microsoft 
since graduation, including two years at 
the European Microsoft Innovation Center. 
He returned to WPI to offer a CS lecture on 
Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V). 




2001 

Kellie (Martin) and Brian Bresnahan 

'98 welcomed their second daughter, 
Piper Genevieve, on June 17, 201 0. She 
joins big sister, Claire. 

William McManus (MS FPE) received 
the 2010 Thomas Carroll Outstanding 
Teacher Award from Roger Williams Uni- 
versity's School of Continuing Studies. "I'm 
an RWU alum from 1982, and I've been 
an adjunct faculty member since 2002 and 
an academic advisor since 2004," he 
writes. "It's a great feeling to give back 
to RWU and to help our students." 

2002 

Curtis Britton joined FARS Realty Group. 
A resident of Medford, Mass., he focuses 
on residential sales and rentals in Suffolk 
and Middlesex counties. 




May 1 1, 2010, totaling almost 14 pounds 
of baby. Big sisters Emma, 4, and Molly, 
2, are very proud of their new siblings. 

Kelly Jaramillo celebrated the comple- 
tion of the first solar thermal system at Kirt- 
land Air Force Base. "It all started at WPI, 
with my MQP on fuel cells," she writes. 
"Eight years ago I found my love for the 
idea of renewable energy. During my Air 
Force service, I tried long and hard to 
maneuver my way into working on energy 
issues. Then, while working in the private 
sector with Weston Solutions Inc., I teamed 
with 3 1 Solar in Albuquerque to win the 
contract for the Kirtland project, a solar 
collector and heat exchange system for 
the base's indoor Olympic-size swimming 
pool. Now I've come full circle; I'm back in 
the Air Force as a civilian engineer, with 
something real on the ground. I couldn't be 
happier, knowing I played a small part in 
launching a renewable energy project in 
my home state of New Mexico!" 

Foursquare co-founder Naveen 
Selvadurai was one of Inc. magazine's 
Coolest Young Entrepreneurs and Fast 
Company's Most Creative People for 
2010. His location-based social network- 
ing service has grown to 7.5 million users 
in its first two years. 

Jack Shindle (MS ME) was appointed 
vice president/engineer at Axion Power 
International in New Castle, Pa. 



Marc and Meghan (Fraizer) Cryan 

announce the birth of their third and fourth 
children. Twins Hazel and Jack arrived on 



2003 



Andrea Hubbard graduated from Ross 
University School of Veterinary Medicine 
in 2010. 



Transformations \ Spring 20 1 1 4 3 



CLASS NOTES 



Kevin Thompson introduced the Pzee 
Computer — a user-friendly system designed 
for senior citizens, with an intuitive inter- 
face, large, easy-to-read buttons, and two 
years of full technical support included in 
the basic price. Kevin blogs on common 
issues in the computing world at 
pzeecomputer.com/blog. 



2005 



2004 



John Baird was invited to give a solo 
presentation at South-by-Southwest (SXSW) 
Interactive 201 1 : "Interactive Comics: 
Techniques to Enhance Math Education." 
The presentation was based on his years 
of work using art in various educational 
fields. He will present further research into 
comics and education at the Pop Culture 
Association in April and the Conference 
for the Advancement of Mathematics 
Teaching (CAMT) in July. 

Tom Daly ranked among the Union 
Leader's 40 UNDER FORTY for his success- 
ful leadership of Dynamic Network Serv- 
ices Inc. in Manchester, N.H. 

Tim McGreal officially launched the 
Alarm Arm on the QVC shopping network. 
The device allows users to install smoke 
detectors and change batteries without 
ladders. "Eight years of work distilled 
down to eight minutes," he says of the 
video segment on the QVC website. 

Anthony Paoletta married Katie Bowen 
last year. He is an industrial engineer 
supervisor for UPS. 

Stefanie Wojcik ran her third Boston 
Marathon in April 201 0, as part of the 



William Herbert took his oath as a 
notary public for the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts for a commission that 
expires in September 2017. He lives in 
Somerville and is an application support 
engineer at Nuance Communications. 

David Toth (MS, '08 PhD) received the 
Edward G. Roddy Outstanding Teacher 
Award at Merrimack College, where he is 
an assistant professor of computer science. 



2006 




Erica Anderson and Justin Clark 

were married July 10, 201 0. The wedding 
party included maid of honor Romiya 
(Glover) Barry '04 and best man 
Andrew Giaquinta, along with Pamela 
Anderson, Elizabeth Gottardi, 
Jonathan Menard, Mark Orrico, 
Andrew Thayer, Mary Kate Toomey 
'08, and Nichole Verissimo. Erica and 
Justin live in Woburn, Mass. 



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Anthony Maietta '04 displayed several of his custom-built bicycles at the 2010 North 
American Handmade Bicycle Show, including a one-of-a-kind creation with integrated GPS 
capabilities. Maietta, who first learned how to design and build bicycles as a mechanical en- 
gineering student at WPI, now fabricates custom bicycles for cyclists throughout the world at 
his workshop in Shirley, Mass. In addition to operating Maietta Handbuilt Cycles, he works 
in R&D for cutting-tool manufacturer Simonds International. "It's really a symbiotic relation- 
ship," he says of his dual career. "Creating products myself with my own hands in the bike 
business gives me a better understanding of how to design products for Simonds that will be 
successful on the production floor. And my mechanical engineering degree gives me the un- 
derstanding of the principles at play when I design and build a bike frame."— /Ces/er Roberts 



Kristin Collette and Bryan Bigda '09 

became engaged in July and are planning 
a Cape Cod wedding in October 201 1 . 

PhD student Zach Pardos ('09 MS CS) 
placed second among student teams (and 
fourth overall) in the 2010 KDD Cup Edu- 
cational Data Mining Challenge. His entry, 
"Using HMMs and bagged decision trees 
to leverage rich features of user and skill," 
was developed with Professor Neil Heffer- 
nan (CS) to predict student responses in an 
intelligent tutoring system. Zach received 
$3,000 and travel funds to present his 
findings at the KDD annual workshop. 



2007 



David Greene graduated from UNH 
Law (formerly Pierce Law Center) in May 
201 with a juris doctor and a master of 
laws in intellectual property. He gave a 
lecture on patent law for WPI graduate 
students in the Materials Science and 
Engineering Program. 

Tom Hayes and 
Monica Giddings 

'06 were married on 
July 17, 2010. Many 
WPI alumni attended 
the event, and the wed- 
ding party included 
Hilary Hayes '04, Laurie Carpenter 
'06, Gharam Han, and Mark Meko 
'08. Tom works at Genzyme as a cell 
process engineer; Monica is a biology 
teacher at Assabet Valley Regional Techni- 
cal High School. The couple recently 
bought a house in Lancaster with a yard 
big enough for their new Dalmatian puppy. 

Air Force Lt. Bryan Kaanta is unit admis- 
sions officer for WPI's ROTC program. 




2008 



■■I Ryan Kendrick and 
P^^^P Erin Vozzola (07 

Kjr- -T ■ MS) were married May 
^^ JF 8, 2010. Erin's father, 
^H Bob Vozzola '80, 
^k walked her down the 
/_JH^^_J aisle. Classmates in at- 
tendance included Arly Dungca, Paul 
Dragnich, Michael Sangillo Jessica 
Copp, Victoria Richardson, and 
Kristin Collette '06. The couple lives 
in Houston. 

Jodi Lowell was profiled in Diversity/ 
Careers in Engineering & Information in an 
article on advanced engineering degrees. 
She received a master's in materials 
science at WPI in fall 2010. 



44 Transformations \ Spring 201 1 



Mary Kate Toomey is a civil engineer 
in the Aviation Division of Jacobs Engineer- 
ing Group's Boston office. Her work in- 
cludes airside engineering design, 
including runways, taxiways, and aprons. 
She was named to the Governor's Advi- 
sory Council on STEM (Science, Technol- 
ogy, Engineering, and Math) Education as 
a subcommittee member. She is pursuing a 
certificate in business. 



2009 



Pat Benson was profiled by the Foxboro 
Reporter on his marathon runs in New York 
and Boston. He works for Pfizer. 



The Providence Journal ran an article on 
Matt Doherty s "double life" as a man- 
agement engineer and a career boxer. He 
earned a master's degree at Brown in in- 
novative management and entrepreneurial 
engineering, and recently took a job with 
Goldman Sachs in New York City. He in- 
tends to continue training and told the 
paper he still dreams about fighting in 
Madison Square Garden or Vegas some 
day. 

Cody Wojcik and his father, Ted, de- 
signed the Mow-Ped — an environmentally 
friendly pedal-powered bicycle-mower that 
was unveiled at the 2010 North American 
Handmade Bicycle Show in Virginia and 
featured in Make magazine. 



20IO 

Lianne Eisner (MS CS) and Nathan Pois- 
son were married Sept. 4, 2010. Lianne is 
a software engineer for Raytheon Co. They 
reside in Hudson, N.H. 

Briana Lorenzo's participation in the 
campus Relay for Life and her internships 
in genetics led to her career as a clinical 
lab technologist in the Tumor Cytogenetics 
Lab at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York 
City. Her continued leadership in fundrais- 
ing events was recently profiled on the 
American Cancer Society's website. 

Grazia Todeschini (PhD) joined En- 
erNex Corp., where she focuses on wind 
power plants. She is the author of Wind 
Energy Conversion Systems as Active Filters. 



Don't Call It a Comeback The revered tradition of WPI wrestling continues with enthusiastic support from alumni 



At Homecoming 2010, the wrestling alumni community 
gathered in Alumni Gym to celebrate the 25th anniversary 
of WPI's first New England Championship in wrestling, and 
to share fond memories of their respective years on the team. 
This extension of its annual gathering on the Quad provided 
an opportunity for members to reflect on the program's 
history as well as its future. 

Though its level of success has waned in recent years, 
the wrestling program remains a revered tradition, upheld by 
many talented and dedicated athletes. And new head coach 
and wrestling alum Steve Hall '87 is committed to rejuvenat- 
ing the program. 

"I want the current student-athletes to experience what 
we experienced," Hall says, referring to the days when Alumni 
Gym was packed to the rafters with fans. "I want them to feel 
they are part of something bigger than themselves — on campus 
and with alumni." 

Several initiatives are under way to help connect today's 
wrestlers with wrestling alumni and to re-energize the pro- 
gram. Hall has connected each 
student wrestler with an alum 
who can offer guidance on the 
student's education and career 
options. He is also working 
toward strengthening the 
connection between wrestling 




Above, Phil Grebinor (hats 

with former member of 

Grebby's Grapplers; 

ot right, members of 

WPI's wrestling family 




alumni and WPI itself, through such activities as the celebra- 
tion at Homecoming. In addition, wrestling alumni have 
launched a special fundraising initiative to establish a new 
endowment. Called the Grebinar Wrestling Endowment Pro- 
gram, it will support the wrestling program's annual operating 
expenses and important renovations to the wrestling practice 
room, among other wrestling priorities. One hundred percent 
of the funds will go to WPI wrestling. 

The endowment is named for former head coach Phil 
Grebinar, who built WPI wrestling into a powerhouse that 
dominated New England collegiate wrestling for more than 
two decades. With an overall record of 499-286-1 1 (.634), 
wrestling is the most successful athletics program in WPI 
history. Wrestling has also placed 14 athletes in the WPI 
Athletic Hall of Fame. Alumni from the Grebinar era describe 
it as "not a team, but a family; not a sport, but a philosophy 
for life." 

"It can't be overstated that this was the single most im- 
portant decision I've made in my life — coming to WPI and 
being part of the wrestling program," says Hall. "I came out 
of here with a full toolbox, from my education and from my 
participation in the wrestling program." 

In a special online feature, Hall and assistant coach 
Garrett Trombi '95, along with Tony Masullo '80, Rich Testa 
'84, and Brian Chu '92, share memories of the Grebinar Era 
and insights about how their WPI wrestling experience helped 
launch their success after graduation. 

Visit wpi.edu/alumni to read more about WPI's 
wrestling tradition and its bright future. For informa- 
tion about the Grebinar Wrestling Endowment Pro- 
gram, contact Donna Stock, director of development, 
at 508-831-6073 or dstock@wpi.edu. 



Transformations \ Spring 2011 AS 



A OBITUARIES 



George D. Macredis '34 of Englewood 
Cliffs, N.J., died July 23, 2009. He leaves 
his wife, Marjorie (Parusis), and two 
daughters. He retired from Westinghouse 
Electric Corp. as an electrical engineer. 

Edward R. Markert '34 of Amherst, 
Mass., died March 18, 2010. He began 
his career at Savage Arms Corp., served 
as gun expert during World War II, and 
worked at the Springfield Armory. He later 
served as a residential developer in the 
Elf Hill area of South Amherst. Markert 
was predeceased by his wife, Claire 
(Laudenat), a son, and a daughter. Two 
daughters survive him. He was the father- 
in-law of Paul Mannheim '61 . 

Nelson Marshall '36 of Portland, 
Ore., died March 25, 2009. A longtime 
oceanographer, he retired from the Univer- 
sity of Rhode Island as professor emeritus 
in 1 984. He was the author of four books; 
the last, Oceanography: An Observer's 
Guide, was published posthumously. Pre- 
deceased by his wife, Grace, in 2006, 
he is survived by six children. 

H. Foster McRell '36 (Theta Chi) of 
Worcester died Sept. 25, 2009. His wife, 
Lois (Denison), died in 2003. Two sons 
survive him. He was a chemical engineer 
for Monsanto Chemical Co. 

Sidney D. Alpert '37 (Alpha Epsilon Pi) 
of Lexington, Mass., died Oct. 16, 2009. 
He was a structural engineer for Stone & 
Webster for 44 years. He leaves his wife, 
Freida, and a son. 

Nathaniel I. Korman '37 of Albu- 
querque, N.M., died Feb. 1 1, 2010. He 
is survived by his wife, Ruth, and two sons. 
Korman worked for Radio Corporation of 
America as director, advanced military sys- 
tems, in the company's Defense Electronic 
Products division. He was the author of 
The USA at Risk. 

Former Phi Sigma Kappa national presi- 
dent Robert B. Abbe '38 of Tequesta, 
Fla., died Nov. 1, 2010. He served on the 
fraternity's Grand Council from 1 954 to 
1 968 and was grand president from 1 962 
to 1964. He worked for Bethlehem Steel 
and Smith-Winchester Manufacturing, and 
later taught at Thames Valley State Techni- 
cal College. Survivors include his wife, 
Eleanor, his son, Patton Abbe '70, and 
a daughter. 

Raymond K. Houston '38 ('39 MS) 
(Lambda Chi Alpha) died Dec. 4, 2009. 
He leaves his wife, Valerie (Doss), and 
three children. A former electrical engineer- 
ing instructor at WPI, he taught at the 
Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, 
Calif., and retired in 1975. 



Raymond J. Forkey '40, Trustee Emeritus 

WPI mourns the passing of Ray Forkey on Feb. 23, 201 1 . A former 
president and longtime leader of the Alumni Association, he served 
as trustee from 1 968 to 1 989. A quarterback on the undefeated 
1938 football team and an inaugural member of the WPI Athletic 
Hall of Fame, he took great interest in WPI sports, chairing the com- 
mittee that decided to continue the football program despite several 
losing seasons. With his wife, Janet, he left his mark on the campus 
with the Forkey Conference Room in Harrington Auditorium and 
Forkey Commons dining area in the Campus Center. They also en- 
dowed the Raymond J. Forkey '40 Scholarship Fund and funded 
major renovations to Higgins Laboratories. Forkey retired horn 
Coppus Engineering in 1980 as president and CEO. A member of 
the Worcester Golf Club for more than 50 years, he achieved nu- 
merous championships and milestones. He was predeceased by his 
wife (who died in 2009) and a daughter; he is survived by a daugh- 
ter. Ray was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon and Skull. 




Earle R. Vickery Jr. '38 (Sigma Alpha 
Epsilon) of Princeton, Mass., died Oct. 16, 

2009. A longtime employee of the Depart- 
ment of Environmental Management (now 
the Department of Recreation and Conser- 
vation), he served as superintendent of the 
Mount Wachusett State Reservation and 
later developed and operated the Wachu- 
sett Mountain ski area. Predeceased by his 
wife, Calista (Howe), and a son, Earle R. 
Vickery III '75, he leaves three sons. 

Fred E. Wiley '38 (Theta Chi) of Mon- 
hegan and Brunswick, Maine, died Jan. 3, 

201 0. He was a plastics engineer who 
held 40 patents and helped develop the 
cooling systems for the Manhattan Project. 
He is survived by his wife, Faryl (Finn), 
and by two children of his first wife, Edith, 
who predeceased him. He was also pre- 
deceased by a son. 

Jack F. Boyd '39 (Sigma Phi Epsilon) of 
Laconic, N.H., died Dec. 20, 2010. Pre- 
deceased by his wife, Marion (Sage), he 
leaves four children. After several manufac- 
turing positions, he purchased Nashua 
Brass in 1952 and served as president 
until retiring in 1952. 

Harding B. Jenkins '40 (Phi Gamma 
Delta) died April 28, 2010, at the Idaho 
Veterans Home in Boise. He began his 
career with American Optical as a trainee 
in 1 940 and retired 32 years later as cor- 
porate vice president. Predeceased by his 
wife, Elizabeth (Stoddard), a son, and a 
daughter, he is survived by a daughter. 

Carlton F. Swasey '40 (Lambda Chi 
Alpha) died Aug. 10, 2008, leaving his 
wife, Jean, and two children. A retired 
auto mechanic, he later ran Hush Puppy 
Kennels in Daytona Beach, Fla. 

Alfred F. Andersen '41 (Lambda Chi 
Alpha) of Santa Rosa, Calif., died July 25, 



201 0. An activist for disarmament, eco- 
nomic justice, and free speech, he was the 
author of Liberating the American Dream 
and Challenging Newt Gingrich Chapter 
by Chapter. His survivors include his wife, 
Dorothy Dungan Norvell Andersen, his 
former wife, Connie, and three children. 

Thomas R. d'Errico '41 of Northamp- 
ton, Mass., a retired professor of civil 
engineering, died May 18, 2010. Prede- 
ceased by his wife, Margaret, he leaves 
two daughters and a son. He began his 
teaching career at Clarkson College and 
retired from North Dakota State University. 

Victor A. Kolesh '41 of Worcester 
died Dec. 9, 2009. He was retired from 
Simonds Saw & Steel Co. (now Simonds 
International) and previously worked for 
Riley Stoker Corp. His wife, Victoria, died 
in 201 0. A World War II veteran of the 
U. S. Army Air Corps, his last mission was 
flying a B-29 to Hollywood for the filming 
of "The Bamboo Blonde," a movie about 
a romance between a World War II pilot 
and a nightclub singer. 

Walter K. Deacon '42 (Alpha Tau 
Omega) of Yorba Linda, Calif., died Sept. 
1 3, 2009. He was the president of Dea- 
con Associates. Predeceased by his wife, 
Pauline, he leaves two children. 

Warren G. Harding '42 (Phi Sigma 
Kappa, Skull) of Lyman, Maine, formerly of 
Montclair, N.J., died April 27, 2010. He 
was predeceased by his wife, Gladys, and 
a son. Two daughters survive him. Harding 
worked for Public Service Gas & Electric 
of Newark. 

Dr. Charles A. Jenkins Jr. '43 (Phi 
Kappa Theta) of Tucson, Ariz., died March 
29, 2008. A dental officer in the U.S. Air 
Force for 22 years, he later established a 
private practice in periodontics and 



4 6 Trans formations | Spring 2011 



endodontics. He was predeceased by his 
wife, Lois, and a daughter. Two children 
survive him. 

John J. Archer '44 (Theta Chi) of 
Chatham, N.J., died Jan. 5, 2010. He 
leaves his wife, Catharine, and three chil- 
dren. He was a patent lawyer in private 
practice and later worked for several cor- 
porations before retiring from Squibb Inc. 

Everett W. Brown '44, of Shrewsbury, 
Mass., died Oct. 26, 2009. His wife, 
Elvon (King), died in 1983. Three sons sur- 
vive him. Brown was retired from Heald 
Machine Co. as a mechanical engineer. 

John G. Underhill '44 (Alpha Tau 
Omega) of Dallas died Feb. 3, 2010, leav- 
ing his wife, Elsie, and two children. His 
former wife, Marguerite (Casey), died in 
1987. He was retired from Exxon Corp. 

Franklyn R. Williams Jr. '44 of Web- 
ster, Mass., died April 16, 2010. An archi- 
tect, he continued the practice founded by 
his father and retired in 1 983. He is 
mourned by close friends and a godson. 

George W. Gregory '45 (Phi Sigma 
Kappa) of Mystic, Conn., died March 1 , 
2010. After graduation he served in the 
Navy until 1963, then worked for Electric 
Boat for 17 years and continued consulting 
after retirement. Survivors include his wife, 
Jean, four sons, and a stepson. 

Richard W. Moriarty '45 of Peter- 
sham, Mass., died Sept. 20, 2008. He 
leaves his wife, Ellen (Gould), and two chil- 
dren. He was retired from Litton Industries. 

Albert F. Myers '45 of Shelby Town- 
ship, Mich., died Feb. 1 1, 2010. He 
leaves his wife, Paulyn, five children, and 
three stepchildren. He was predeceased by 
his first wife, Georgie, in 1 98 1 . Myers was 
the retired vice president of Lear Siegler. 

Alfred W. Rothwell '45 (Theta Chi) 
of Woodstock, Ga., died Dec. 1 1 , 2009. 
He was retired from DuPont. He was pre- 
deceased by his wife, Thelma (Boyer), and 
a son. He is survived by a son. 

Frank A. Gross Jr. '46 (Sigma Phi Epsi- 
lon, Skull) of Fort Worth, Texas, died Jan. 15, 
2010. He was the owner of GO Recogni- 
tion Concepts, which he founded with his 
wife, Virginia (Gunther). Other survivors 
include his son, Donald Gross '72, and a 
daughter. 

David L. Hall '46 ('54 SIM) (Phi Sigma 
Kappa) of Worcester died Feb. 13, 2010. 
His wife, Muriel (Bergstom), died in 2005. 
Three children survive him. Hall worked for 
the former Coes Knife Co., where he held 
the post of vice president of manufacturing. 

Clarence A. Hodges '46 of Dewitt, 
Mich., died Jan. 8, 2010. He worked for 
C. M. Smille&Co. 



Harry J. Mehrer '46 (Theta Chi, Skull) 
of Lower Gwynedd, Pa., died May 22, 
2010. He worked in the family textile busi- 
ness, Butterworth & Sons, and later served 
as a manager for the Friendly's ice cream 
chain. Survivors include his wife, Shirley 
(Hiltz), and two children. He was prede- 
ceased by a son. 

Douglas S. Miller '46 of East North- 
port, N.Y., died March 9, 2010. He was 
retired from the U.S. Dept. of Energy as a 
program manager. He leaves two children. 

Robert W. Schramm '46 (Sigma Alpha 
Epsilon) of Venice, Fla., and Mashpee, 
Mass., died April 24, 2010. As director of 
overseas projects for Bristol-Myers Squibb, 
he oversaw construction of pharmaceutical 
plants on six continents. His wife, Barbara, 
died Nov. 10, 2010. He is survived by 
three sons. 

Robert S. Tamblyn '46 of Medford, 
Ore., died May 1 1 , 20 1 0. He was prede- 
ceased by his wife, Sally, in 2009. He was 
the retired treasurer of JRW Tech Inc. 

William A. Williams '47 (Theta Chi) of 
Holden, Mass., died March 4, 2010. He 
was the father of Bill Williams Jr. '80. He 
also leaves his wife, Loretta (Saunders), 
and three other children. An electrical en- 
gineer, he retired from Heald Machine Co. 
with 38 years of service. 



Edmund C. "Ned" Dowse Jr. '48 of 

Asheville, N.C., died May 11, 2009. He 
retired from Eastman Kodak Co. as an en- 
gineering supervisor. He was predeceased 
by his wife of 53 years, Nancy, and his 
second wife, Ann. He is survived by a 
daughter. 

Edward J. Powers '48 (Phi Kappa 
Theta) of South Windsor, Conn., died Oct. 
1 5, 201 0. He leaves his wife, Arline (Kim- 
ball), and two children. A graduate of 
Boston College of Law, he was a contracts 
administrator in the legal department of 
United Technologies. After retirement from 
corporate employment he worked in his 
son's law office. 

John H. Beckwith '49 (5 1 MS CM) of 

Westerly, R.I., died Feb. 20, 2010. Prede- 
ceased by his wife, Johanne, he is survived 
by six children. His career as a vice presi- 
dent for ExxonMobil Research and Engi- 
neering took him all over the globe. 

Richard W. Brown '49 of Avon, Conn., 
died Feb. 26, 2010. He was retired from 
the University of Hartford where he taught 
electrical engineering for 25 years and 
served as department chair. He previously 
taught at Norwich University and Went- 
worth Institute. Husband of the late Bar- 
bara (Williams) Brown, he leaves three 
children. 



Trustees Remembrance 

J. Morrison Smith Sr. '37, former president of the National 
Radio Institute and dedicated supporter of his alma mater, died 
Feb. 15, 2010. Smith served as trustee from 1972 to 1977 and 
was honored with the Herbert F. Taylor Award in 1 987 With his 
father, James E. Smith, Class of 1906, and his nephew, Michael 
Galbraith '58, he made possible the construction of new facilities 
for the student radio station, WWPI, in the Campus Center. His 
family also endowed three named scholarships. Smith was pre- 
deceased by his wife, Mary, and a son. Three children survive 
him. He belonged to Alpha Tau Omega. 

Paul R. Beswick '57, founder of Beswick Engineering, died 
Aug. 15, 2010. He is survived by his wife, S.K., who serves as 
the firm's operations manager, and his son, ChanLing, a WPI 
senior. Paul and S.K. established the Paul R. Beswick Professor- 
ship in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2008. He also served 
on the advisory board for WPI's Collaborative for Entrepreneur- 
ship and Innovation (CEI). In October 2009 he was appointed 
to the WPI Board of Trustees. 

Daniel I. Coifman '67, trustee emeritus, died Oct. 20, 2010. 
He was founder of Able International and president of TRIL Export 
Corp. of Puerto Rico, where he worked with his son, Tracy Coif- 
man '93. He is also survived by his wife, Linda, and a daughter. 
After earning a master's degree in industrial engineering from 
Northeastern University, Coifman managed polymer plants in the 
United States and Puerto Rico. A member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, he 
lived in the fraternity's house on Einhorn Road. He served on the 
WPI Board from 1 995 to 2003 and was a dedicated supporter 
in the campaign to construct the Campus Center. 

Full obituaries may be read at wpi.edu/News/Memoriam 




Transformations \ Spring 201 1 47 



.'■ '■ 



A OBITUARIES 



Paul R. Dulong '49 (Phi Sigma Kappa) 
of Dallas, Texas, died Dec. 21, 2009. Pre- 
deceased by his wife, Jean, he leaves three 
children. He worked for several firms as a 
mechanical and electrical engineer and re- 
tired from E-Systems with 20 years of service. 

Henry J. Ezen '49 of North Fort Myers, 
Fla., died Dec. 25, 2009. After retiring 
from Polaroid Corp. in 1984, he founded 
Ezen Consulting Engineers with his wife, 
Mae (Vacca), who died in 1988, and his 
daughter, Frances, who survives him. 

Robert M. Jodrey '49 (Sigma Alpha 
Epsilon) of Westborough, Mass., died 
April 22, 2010, leaving his wife, Vera 
(Louis). A former engineering instructor at 
the University of New Hampshire and Dart- 
mouth College, he later held management 
positions at several manufacturing firms. 

Former Tech Old Timers president James 
F. O'Regan '49 (Phi Kappa Theta, Skull) 
of Westborough, Mass., died March 20, 
2010. He leaves his wife, Mary (Rogashio), 
and four children. O'Regan was the retired 
president and founder of Feecon Corp., 
and a former member of WPI's Fire Protec- 
tion Engineering Advisory Board. 

Abraham W. Siff '49 (Alpha Epsilon Pi) 
of Sudbury, Mass., died Aug. 30, 2009. 
He leaves his wife, Patricia (Skehan), and 
six children. Siff was a retired product 
manager for Dresser Industries. 

Bernard C. Walsh '49 of Holden, 
Mass., died Jan. 1 7, 201 0. He worked for 
Bose Corp. as a mechanical engineer. Pre- 
deceased by his wife, Marjorie (Bernard), 
he leaves six children. 

D. Ray Allshouse '50 of Limerick, Pa., 
died March 1 5, 2009. Husband of the late 
Ruth (Dauderis), he is survived by two sons. 
He worked as a mechanical engineer at 
several firms and retired from Elf-Atochem. 

Raymond J. Blanche! '50 (Phi Kappa 
Theta) of Wallingford, Conn., died March 
25, 2010. He was retired from U.S. Steel 
as a plant engineer. His wife, Darcy 
(Chase), predeceased him in 2008. 

John L. Hawley '50 (Phi Sigma Kappa) 
of Winter Park, Fla., died May 5, 2010. 
He leaves his wife, Jean, and a son. He 
was retired as senior principal engineer 
for Stone & Webster, where he oversaw 
the completion of the Comanche Peak 
Nuclear Station. 

Malcolm D. Horton '50 (Sigma Phi 
Epsilon, Skull) of Dade City, Fla., died Sept. 
28, 2009. He leaves his wife, Doris, and 
three daughters. Horton joined Dames & 
Moore in 1952, managed the company's 
offices in various regions of the United 



Faculty Remembrance 

Alex Dilorio '86 (MS), '91 (PhD), director of the Bioprocess 
Center and affiliated assistant professor of biology and biotech- 
nology, died July 9, 2010, after a long illness. He leaves his 
wife, Carol (Gurney) Dilorio '86, and three children. A graduate 
of Columbia University, he earned a master's degree and PhD 
at WPI and joined the faculty in 1 993. Under his direction, the 
Bioengineering Center provided contract research to the biotech- 
nology industry and played a central role in workforce retraining 
programs offered by WPI's Corporate and Professional Education 
Division. Working with a California company called EdiniQ, 
Dilorio developed new processes for producing the biofuel 
ethanol from agricultural waste to lessen the need to use corn 
and other foods to create fuel. 

Raymond R. Hagglund '56, professor emeritus of mechani- 
cal engineering, died on Nov. 29, 2010. An internationally 
recognized expert on engineering and product liability law, he 
consulted on more than 1 ,500 cases, lectured internationally, 
and inspired his students with mock trials. He received the 1 974 
Board of Trustees' Award for Outstanding Teaching. Hagglund 
played a hands-on role in development of the WPI Plan, rallying 
students and colleagues to refurbish a disused space in the 
Washburn Shops to serve as a home for the IQP. His generous 
support of WPI is marked by the Campus Center Hagglund 
Room. Preceded in death by his wife, Joyce, he leaves two 
daughters. He was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa and Skull. 

Owen W. Kennedy Jr. '45, a longtime electrical engineering 
professor and WPI's first dean of academic computing, died May 
10, 2010. After earning his bachelor's and master's degrees at 
WPI, he joined the electrical engineering faculty in 1948 and 
taught for 40 years. Kennedy was instrumental in bringing the 
first standard desktop computer to the campus. He was an early 
member of a discussion group of young faculty who laid the 
foundation for the WPI Plan. Predeceased by his wife, Nancy 
(Inman) Kennedy, he married Flora (Hakala) Adams in 1994. 
Other survivors include two children and three stepchildren. 
He was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa and Skull. 

Audrey L. Muggleton-Harris, a former associate professor 
of biology and biotechnology who made notable contributions as 
a cell biologist and embryologist, died Sept. 2, 2010. She joined 
the WPI faculty in 1 976 and headed up some of the world's first 
attempts to clone a mouse. She was the first woman to win the 
Board of Trustees' Award for Outstanding Creative Scholarship 
and Research. Muggleton-Harris left WPI in 1983 and joined the 
Medical Research Council in London, where her work centered 
on diagnosing defects in embryos before in vitro fertilization im- 
plantation. She is survived by a daughter and two grandchildren. 

Full obituaries may be read at wpi.edu/News/Memoriam 




States, as well as the Middle East, and 
continued as a consultant after retirement. 

Alan F. Howe '50 of Princeton, Mass., 
died April 23, 2010. Survivors include his 
wife, Ellen (McCarthy), three children, his 
former wife and friend, Nancy Howe, and 
five stepchildren. He was retired from Nor- 
ton Co. after a career of almost 40 years. 

Norman B. Maynard '50 (Theta Chi) 
of Westport, Mass., died June 3, 2010. 
He was the retired president of Hathaway- 
Braley Wharf Co. Survivors include his 
wife, Janice (Braley), and three daughters. 



Joseph C. Syiek '50 of Concord, 
Mass., died June 22, 2010. Predeceased 
by his wife, Agnes Pohnson), he leaves 
five children. An electrical engineer, he 
was retired from the U.S. Air Force Strate- 
gic Air Command at Hanscom Field. 

Warner S. Adams Jr. '51 of Groton, 
Conn., died Sept. 15, 2009. He leaves his 
wife, Janet (Cochran), and a daughter. He 
retired as head of the Submarine Electro- 
magnetic Systems Dept. of the Naval 
Undersea Warfare Center. 



4 8 Transformations \ Spring 201 1 



Gerald F. Atkinson '51 (Phi Kappa 
Theta, Skull), a longtime resident of West 
Springfield, Mass., died April 9, 2010. 
He was retired from Pratt & Whitney as 
an electrical engineer. 

Jin Wah Lee '51 of Pembroke Pines, 
Fla., died Jan. 1 5, 201 0. He leaves his 
wife, Kin Lee, and a daughter. 

Roger W. Swanson '51 (Alpha Tau 
Omega) of DeWitt, N.Y., died May 23, 
2010. He was retired from General Elec- 
tric, where he worked on military radar 
projects. He is survived by his wife, Mari- 
lyn, and three children. 

Donald M. Krauss '52 (Sigma Alpha 
Epsilon) of Sun City West, Ariz., died Aug. 
14, 2010. He was retired from Raytheon 
Co. as a program manager. Predeceased 
by his wife, Edna (Skytne), in 2002, he 
leaves his daughter, Lisa Krauss '80, and 
two other children. 

Edgar W. Slocum '52 (Phi Sigma 
Kappa) of Wilmington, Del., died June 28, 
2010. He worked at DuPont Experimental 
Station for four decades. He is survived by 
two children, his girlfriend, Ina Casale, 
and his ex-wife, Jean Slocum. 

Robert T. Baxter '53 (SIM) of Scituate, 
Mass., died Jan. 1 1 , 201 0. He leaves his 
wife, Eleanor, and four children. He was 
retired from Baxter Enterprises. 

Henry K. Burger '53 of Williamsburg, 
Va., died April 8, 2010. He retired from 
a naval career in 1 977, with the rank of 
commander, then held several civilian jobs 
in public works, hospital operations, and 
hotel services. He leaves his wife, Gail 
(McSherry), and three children. 

Philip J. Kaminsky '53 (Alpha Epsilon 
Pi, Skull) of Marblehead, Mass., died 
March 19, 2009. He leaves his wife, 
Harriet (Budnitz), and three children. He 
worked for Cohmad Securities Corp. 

David A. Bisson '54 (Phi Kappa Theta) 
of Shoreline, Wash., died May 1 4, 201 0. 
Survivors include his wife, Carol, and three 
children. He was the retired president and 
CEO of Frederick Beck Originals. 

Wilfred F. Taylor '54 (Alpha Tau 
Omega) of Lyman, Maine, died June 5, 
2010, leaving his wife, Mary (Scott), and 
six children. A civil engineer, he started 
TEC Engineering and served as the town 
engineer for Barnstable, Mass., and 
Gorham, Maine. 

Roy H. Wise '54 (Sigma Phi Epsilon) of 
Succasunna, N.J., died Nov. 5, 2009. Pre- 
deceased by his wife, Evelyn (Ihde), he 
leaves two daughters and a stepdaughter. 
He retired from a long career with Nynex. 

John J. Bryce '55 of Lancaster, Mass., 
died April 1 1 , 2010. He was retired from 



Harvey & Tracy Assoc, where he worked 
as a structural engineer for more than 30 
years. Survivors include his wife, Ann 
(Sargent), and two children. 

Richard E. Goodwin '55 (Phi Gamma 
Delta) of The Villages, Fla., died Nov. 19, 
2009. He leaves his wife, Marjorie, and 
two children. He was vice president of 
marketing for Industrial Engineering Inc. 

Philip M. Leavitt '55 (Phi Kappa Theta) 
of Oak Ridge, N.J., died June 29, 2009. 
He was retired from Picatinny Arsenal as 
a nuclear arms engineer. He also founded 
and ran the Old Pine Shop. He leaves his 
wife, Sally (Hewitt), and four children. 

Warner I. Clifford '57 (Phi Sigma 
Kappa) of Kingston, Tenn., died March 18, 
2009. A member of the board of Stone & 
Webster Engineering, he was retired as 
senior vice president. His wife, Bernice 
(Huffman), and a daughter survive him. 

James M. Doff '57 (Theta Chi) of 
Palisades Park, N.J., died Nov. 7, 2010, 
leaving his wife, Lynn. He received his 
MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University 
and spent his career working at Lever 
Brothers (now Univlever Home and 
Personal Care). 

George Klimchak '57 (Sigma Alpha 
Epsilon) of Daytona Beach, Fla., died June 
4, 2009. He worked as a financial advisor 
for over 40 years. He leaves four children. 

William H. Ostermann '57 (Sigma Phi 
Epsilon) of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, died 
Aug. 1 2, 2009. He leaves his wife, Carol 
(Waterfield), and two sons. He worked at 
Pratt & Whitney as a computer program- 
mer. After retirement he served as a park 
ranger in Death Valley and Acadia 
national parks. 

Collins M. Pomeroy '57 of Orleans, 
Mass., died April 24, 2010. He is sur- 
vived by his wife, Barbara (Morris), and 
two sons. He was retired from Verizon 
Communications after a 33-year career. 

Donald G. Striby '57 (Phi Gamma 
Delta, Skull), of Cocoa, Fla., died Aug. 3, 

2009. He was retired from Lockheed 
Martin. He leaves his wife, Ruth, three 
sons, and a stepdaughter. 

Robert A. Yates '57 ('59 MS) (Theta 
Chi) of Bethany, Conn., died Sept 24, 

2010. He worked for Uniroyal, retiring 
as energy/conservation manager. He is 
survived by his wife, Susan (Reeder), and 
a daughter. 

David A. Ryan '58 (Phi Kappa Theta) 
of Winter Park, Fla., died Oct. 6, 2010. 
He worked for Raytheon and Lockheed 
Martin. He leaves his wife, Donna (Kin- 
ney), and seven children. He was prede- 
ceased by his first wife, Nancy (Bullock), 
and a daughter. 



George F. Walker '58 (SIM), former 
president of Johnson Steel and Wire in 
Worcester, died May 7, 2010, at age 83. 
He leaves his wife, Gladys (Constantine), 
and two daughters. He founded Delta 
Wire Corp. in Clarksdale, Miss. 

John A. Beede '59 of Shrewsbury, 
Mass., died May 30, 2010. An independ- 
ent contractor, he served as a software 
and systems analyst for several area com- 
panies, including GTE and Raytheon. He 
is survived by two daughters. 

Leon H. Blanchard '59 (SIM) of Dade 
City, Fla., died June 12, 2009, leaving his 
wife, Elizabeth (Field), and four children. 
He retired from Morgan Construction Co. 

Neil A. Peters '59 (Tau Kappa Epsilon) 
of Phoenix, Ariz., died May 24, 2010. He 
worked for the Rochester Products Division 
of General Motors and later in the aviation 
and aerospace industry. He is survived by 
three children. 

Paul E. Honer '60 (Phi Sigma Kappa) of 
Pensacola, Fla., died May 17, 2008. He 
leaves his wife, Ruthann, and two children. 
He was marketing and sales manager for 
Kennedy Engineering Co. 

John Brunter '61 (formerly Brylczyk) 
(Alpha Tau Omega) of Glen Cove, N.Y., 
died Feb. 12, 2010. He was retired from 
Grumman Aerospace as a senior engineer 
in the Avionic Design Section. He leaves 
his wife, Jean (Backstrom), and two children. 

Alfred A. Arterton '62 (SIM) of West- 
erly, R.I., died July 21, 2009. He leaves 
his wife, Jean (Merriam), and four chil- 
dren. He worked for several manufacturing 
companies and retired from Crompton & 
Knowles Corp. in 1991. 

Thomas W. Conway '62 (Phi Kappa 
Theta) of Hutchinson, Kan., died Jan. 8, 
2009, after a courageous battle with lung 
cancer. A former partner in Conway & 
Assoc, he later worked as an agent for 
New York Life Insurance Co. He was pre- 
deceased by his wife, Jeanne, and a son. 
One son survives him. 

Robert H. Goretti '62 (Sigma Alpha 
Epsilon) of Plainville, Mass., died Nov. 1, 
2009. Predeceased by his wife, Noreen, 
and a son, he is survived by a daughter. 
He worked for Texas Instruments and later 
was an operations manager and sales 
executive in the jewelry industry. 

Earl M. Maby '62 (MNS), formerly of 
Monson, Mass., died Nov. 24, 2009, at 
age 86. He taught mathematics at Lee 
High School for more than 30 years. Sur- 
vivors include his two daughters. He was 
predeceased by Bertha Wilcox, his loving 
companion for more than 30 years. 



Transformations \ Spring 2011 4 9 



A OBITUARIES 



Edward M. Jablonski '64 (SIM) of 
Clinton, Mass., died April 14, 2010. He 
was an industrial engineer for Ray-O-Vac 
Co. for more than 40 years. His wife, Lu- 
cille (Renaud), predeceased him. Three 
children survive him. 

Edward R. Mencow '64 of Lexington, 
Mass., died May 18, 2010. He con- 
tributed to the development of laser tech- 
nology at Raytheon Co., and later worked 
for Bell Labs and MIT Lincoln Laboratory. 

David B. Getchell '65 of Rockwall, 
Texas, died Sept. 20, 2009, leaving his 
wife, Nancy, and two children. He was 
president and owner of Tyler 5th Avenue 
Color Labs. 



William P. Stanton '68 (72 MSCE) 
(Sigma Phi Epsilon) of Golden, Colo., died 
April 22, 2010. He leaves his wife, Bar- 
bara (Schilling), and two sons. He worked 
for several engineering and surveying 
firms, and the Colorado Water Conserva- 
tion Board. 

Former football co-captain Mark S. 
Simpson '69 (Phi Kappa Theta) of Ger- 
manville, Pa., died May 1 , 201 0. He was 
retired from Air Products & Chemicals Inc. 
Survivors include his wife, Joanne 
(McNeer), and two children. 

Leonard A. Chauvin '70 (MNS) of 
Webster, Mass., died April 4, 2010, at 
age 86. He taught chemistry and health 
science at Bartlett High School and retired 
as chairman of the science department. 




Steve R. Dacri '74 (Tau Kappa Epsilon), 
of Las Vegas, died Feb. 1 1, 201 1, of colon cancer. 
He leaves his wife, Jan, and a son. From his first 
magic acts at age six, to his career as a popular 
Las Vegas illusionist, Steve dedicated his life to 
performing, teaching, and writing about magic. 
He impressed WPI deans with his talent during 
his admission interview, and later credited WPI 
with giving him the business and marketing back- 
ground to pursue a career in entertainment. A 
pioneer in close-up, sleight-of-hand magic, he 
often returned to the Worcester area to perform 
and connect with old friends. His act was a 
popular attraction at WPI Reunions. 



Ralph E. Southwick '66 (MNS) of 
Barre, Mass., died Nov. 20, 2009. He 
was 87. Predeceased by his wife, Phyllis 
(Cook), he leaves eight children. He was a 
retired middle school science teacher who 
taught in the Holden school system. 

Walter A. Johnson Jr. '67 (69 MS 

ME) of Homosassa, Fla., died Jan. 22, 
201 1, leaving his wife, Lynda (Kennedy). 
He began his career as a programmer for 
IBM and retired from the cost engineering 
department of Lockheed Martin Federal 
Systems. 

Allan T. Buros '67 of Amherst, N.H., 
died June 1 7, 201 0. He was retired from 
BAE systems as a reliability engineer with 
33 years of service. He leaves his wife, 
Nadine, and three children. 

J. Roger Dougherty '67 (Sigma Phi 
Epsilon) of Los Angeles died Aug. 1 1 , 
2009. He was president and founder of 
Claviger Corp. 



Bruce S. Robinson '70 (Phi Sigma 
Kappa) of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., died 
Oct. 7, 2010. He received an MBA from 
Fairleigh Dickinson University and com- 
pleted the management development pro- 
gram at Harvard University School of 
Business. He worked for AT&T in New Jer- 
sey and Florida. He leaves his wife, Sally, 
and two sons. 

William S. Cundall Jr. '71 (SIM) of 
Spencer, Mass., died May 1 1, 2010. He 
was 81 . He leaves his wife, Helen (Bow- 
mar), and four children. He was a retired 
foreman for Jamesbury Corp. 

Daniel T. Donahue '71 of Woburn, 
Mass., died Dec. 1 , 2009. He was an en- 
gineer for Coughlin Environmental and pre- 
viously served as town engineer for several 
Massachusetts municipalities. 

James R. Fay '71 (Tau Kappa Epsilon) 
of Marlborough, Mass., died March 5, 
2010. He leaves his wife, Judy (Wight), 
and two daughters. A graduate of the 
ROTC program at WPI, he was retired 
from the Air Force as a structural engineer. 



Bryan L Furtek '71 of Salt Lake City 
died Feb. 7, 201 0. He was president of 
Bryan L. Furtek Consulting, an environmen- 
tal engineering firm specializing in water 
and soil remediation. 

Gordon F. Chess '72 (PhD EE) of 
London, Ontario, Canada, died Oct. 9, 
2009, at the age of 84. He was the retired 
dean of engineering at the University of 
Western Ontario. He leaves his wife, 
Margaret, and three children. He was 
predeceased by a daughter. 

James R. Hargraves Jr. '72 of Bethel, 
Conn., died March 23, 2010. He was the 
founder of PDS. He is survived by his wife, 
Patricia (Goettel), and four children. 

Roger T. James '73 (MS MA) of Ster- 
ling, Va., died April 17, 2010. He retired 
from Science Applications International 
Corp. as a senior analyst. Survivors include 
his wife, Mary Ellen, and two children. 

Ralph E. Bednarik '74 (SIM) of West 
Yarmouth, Mass., died Aug. 16, 2009, 
at age 82. He leaves his wife, Sandra 
(Poole), two children, and two stepchildren. 
A longtime engineer for Wyman-Gordon 
Co., he retired as manager of the com- 
pany's Grafton plant. 

Richard Pomeroy '75 of Acton, Mass., 
died June 30, 3009. He worked for 
General Electric. 

Earle R. "Russ" Vickery III '75, of 

Hendersonville, Nev., died Jan. 5, 2009, 
leaving his wife, Margaret. He was the son 
of the late Earle R. Vickery '38. He was 
self-employed as owner of Vickery Design. 

John F. Del Prete '76 (SIM) of Naples, 
Fla., died July 1 6, 2009, at age 82. He 
was retired from Commonwealth Energy 
as director of public relations, and from 
the Army National Guard as chief warrant 
officer. His wife, Vera (Buchner), and six 
children survive him. 

Dave "The Bear" Pryor '76 (Lambda Chi), 
of Salem, III., who played four seasons on 
the football team, died June 14, 2010. He 
leaves his wife, Susan, and three children. 
He was president and CEO of Radiac Abra- 
sives. WPI classmates held a pre-game re- 
membrance for his family at Homecoming. 

Joseph P. Murphy '77 (SIM) of Rut- 
land, Mass., died March 19, 2010. He 
was the husband of Joan (Budnick) Mur- 
phy, assistant to the dean of graduate en- 
rollment at WPI. He also leaves four 
children. Murphy was the retired plant 
manager for Jamesbury Corp. 

Joseph B. Dellagala '79 (SIM) of 
Shrewsbury, Mass., died March 2, 2010, 
at age 88. His wife, Esther, survives him. 
He was predeceased by his two sons. 
Dellagala was retired from Wright Line 
Corp. as a manager. 






5 Transformations \ Spring 201 1 



Raymond J. Weavill '79 of Harris- 
burg, Pa., died Jan. 4, 2010. He leaves 
his wife, Joyce, two children, and three 
stepchildren. He managed AMP/Tyco Elec- 
tronics' Lickdale Plant. 

Gordon C. Estabrooks '80 (MNS) of 
Chelmsford, Mass., died April 15, 2010, 
at age 83. He was head of the Science 
Department at Boston Latin High School for 
more than 25 years. His wife, Alice 
(McEwen), survives him. 

Francis V. Wenc '80 (SIM) of The Vil- 
lages, Fla., died Aug. 30, 2008, at age 
66. He was in charge of beverage systems 
maintenance for Wayne Densch Inc. His 
wife, Sheila, survives him. 

Laurent L. Bourbeau '82 (SIM) of Stur- 
bridge, Mass., died May 1 7, 201 0, at 72. 
Survivors include his wife, Carol (Monette), 
and four children. He was retired from 
Hyde Tools as director of health and safety. 

Richard R. Terry '82 (MNS) of Marlbor- 
ough, Mass., died Feb. 9, 2010. He was 
74. Predeceased by his wife, Rita (Maio- 
rano), he leaves three children. He retired 
from Marlborough High School as head of 
the Science Department after almost four 
decades of teaching. 

Francis R. Haias '84 (MNS) of Lynn- 
field, Mass., died Jan. 23, 2009, at age 
66. He was a retired teacher at Maiden 
Catholic High School. His wife, Eleanor 
(Goc), survives him. 

Geoffrey C. Sluicer '85 of Brookline, 
Mass., died unexpectedly on March 6, 
2010. He was a software engineer for 
several high-tech firms in the Boston area, 
including Timely Solutions. He is survived 
by a brother. 

Martin J. Moran '88 of White Plains, 
Md., died May 22, 2009. An authority on 
nuclear submarine weaponry, he served at 
naval shipyards in Norfolk, Va., Newport, 
R.I., and Portsmouth, Va. He is survived by 
his wife, Donna (Johnson), and two stepsons. 

Daniel E. Bruso '89 of Somers, Conn., 
died Feb. 14, 2010. He leaves his wife, 
Sandra (Strumski), and three children. An 
associate in the intellectual property litiga- 
tion practice of Cantor Colburn LLP, he 
was also adjunct professor at Western 
New England College of Law. 

David A. DiBattista '90 (Alpha Chi 
Rho) of Enfield, Conn., died Jan. 10, 2010. 
He leaves his wife, Kathleen (White), and 
two children. He was a sales engineer for 
Standard Bellows Co. 

James R. Perron '90 of North Scituate, 
R.I., died April 27, 2009. A Navy veteran 
of Operation Desert Storm, he was em- 
ployed by the U.S. Postal Service. His 
wife, Anita (Lamb), survives him. 



Stoff RemGmbronce 

John Lott Brown '46, a longtime trustee who served as 
interim president from 1 994 to 1 995, died Jan. 1 6, 201 1 . His 
academic career included positions at the universities of Kansas, 
Pennsylvania, and Rochester, and a decade at the helm of the 
University of South Florida, where he oversaw the transformation 
of the school from a small liberal arts institution to a major 
research university. Brown received the Robert H. Goddard 
Alumni Award for Professional Achievement in 1969, an hon- 
orary doctorate in science in 1984, the William R. Grogan 
Award for Support of the Mission of WPI in 1 996, and the 
Herbert F. Taylor Alumni Award for Distinguished Service in 
2006. During his year as interim president, he was tapped for 
Skull. He is survived by his wife, Catherine, and four children. 

James F. Fee '65, co-founder of the WPI Venture Forum, died 
Oct. 4, 201 0, leaving his wife, Joan, and two children. He 
belonged to Phi Kappa Theta and served on his Class Board of 
Directors. A consultant to entrepreneurs, Fee worked with alumni 
and faculty to create the Venture Forum, a unique organization 
devoted to bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, business 
leaders, and job seekers. Under his leadership, it grew to a self- 
supporting nonprofit with several hundred members, offering 
monthly programs. 

Full obituaries may be read at wpi.edu/News/Memoriam 




t -h 







Bruce E. Anderson '91 (SIM) of Lunen- 
burg, Mass., died July 20, 20 1 0. He was 
68. Survivors include his wife, Marian 
(Kraft), and three children. He was retired 
from Norton Co. 

Lawrence C. Fox '97 (MBA) of Dart- 
mouth, Mass., died Nov. 2, 2010. He was 
49. He was vice president of sales for DM 
Technology & Energy. He leaves his wife, 
Laura, and three children. 

Jared B. Berube '98 of Tolland, Conn., 
died unexpectedly on March 15, 2010. 
He leaves his wife, Dianna (Carlson) 
Berube '98, and two children. He earned 
an MBA at Nichols College and worked as 
a cell manager for United Abrasives Inc. 

Rhonda J. (Lima) Goonan '98 (MME) 
of Raynham, Mass., died June 1 8, 2009, 
at age 39. She leaves her husband, 
Robert, and three children. She taught 
math at Sharon High School. 

Michael W. Hamel '99 of Naugatuck, 
Conn., died unexpectedly on April 9, 
2010. He worked in the IT department of 
the state's Region 15 Board of Education. 
He is survived by his parents and a sister. 

Alexander A. Naiman '05 of 

Foxboro, Mass., died Nov. 24, 2009. 
He graduated from Dartmouth College in 
2007 with master's degrees in biostatistics 
and epidemiology studies, and was work- 
ing on his doctorate in genetics and labo- 
ratory science in cancer research and 
researching the use of bacteria and viruses 
as a vehicle to penetrate and kill cancer 
cells. He is survived by his parents. 



WPI has also received notice 

of the following deaths: 

William S. Hoar '22 in 1990 

Richard F. Norton '26 in 2002 

Henry I. Hirschen '30 in 1990 

William J. (Grabowski) Graye '42 in 1990 

Robert W. Pease '42 in 2004 

Alojzy A. Moroz '44 in 2004 

George F. Langley '54 (SIM) in 2006 

Marion T. Harris '60 in 2005 

Philip Bitzas '75 in 2007 

Lawrence H. Cope '90 in 2004 



Postscript 

Two veterans who lost their lives in service 
received special commemoration last year. 

• Lt. Col. Howard D. (David) Stephenson '60 
was laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery 
more than 38 years after he was listed as 
missing in action during the Vietnam War. 
A military funeral was in June 2010, after 
the recovery and identification of remains 
of all 14 airmen aboard an AC130A gun- 
ship that was shot down near the border 
of Laos in 1972. 

• The 1 st Lt. Ryan Patrick Jones Bridge 
on Route 2 in Westminster, Mass., was 
dedicated in September 2010 in honor 
of the 2005 graduate who was killed in 
action in Iraq in 2007. 



Transformations \ Spring 2011 51 



<> TIME CAPSULE 



By Joan Killough-Miller 



There's a New Kid in Town 



It all began with the kidnapping of a live goat from a near- 
by farm in 1891. The unfortunate animal was stabled at a 
farmhouse on Park Avenue, and its care fell to a Japanese 
student, Gompei Kuwada (because of his ability to 
handle the beast and because his were the only 
initials that fit the title "Goat Keeper"). When 
the school year ended, the students balked 
at the cost of boarding a live goat for the 
summer. Instead, they kept only the head 
of their mascot, mounted on a board. 

When their cherished relic was stolen by 
sophomores the following year, the Class of 1893 
tried to cover up the humiliating loss by having a 
look-alike goat beheaded and mounted. Imagine 
their shock when, 20 years later, as they sat enjoying 
their Reunion Banquet in the Electrical Engineering Labora- 
tory (now Atwater Kent), they looked up to see their original 
goat's head being lowered from the ceiling by a crane. Their 
tormentors had kept it hidden in Canada and took great joy 
in dangling the prize in the faces of its rightful owners. 

In 1926 the rank and tattered specimen was deemed 
too far gone to preserve. Its creators commissioned a bronze 
sculpture — said to weigh "twenty and a Kuwada" pounds — 
to replace it. They presented the trophy to the Class of 1928 
at its sophomore banquet, along with rules for a class rivalry 
that would engender spirit — and controversy — for decades 
to come. 




Although the rules have evolved over time, the game 
remains essentially the same: the Goat is awarded to the class 
that accumulates the most points in a series of class rivalry 

events. Its possessors are required to "show" the trophy 
publicly at large gatherings — giving rival classes a 
chance to snatch it. The competition has 
gone through periods of dormancy and 
revival, and has at times been constrained 
by an administration concerned for stu- 
dent safety in the rough-and-tumble rivalry. 
In 1995 the Alumni Association arranged 
to have a replica created, so the valuable original 
could be preserved in safe storage. But as the new 
and the old Goat statues were being carried into 
Higgins House for a photo shoot, they were snatched 
from the arms of an unwary Alumni Office staffer. By sun- 
down the original statue was returned to the proper authori- 
ties — with a '96 etched on its derriere. 

We now have a new Proud Goat statue that looks out 
across the Quad from its temporary post by the Bartlett 
Center. A senior gift from the Class of 2009, this life-size 
rendering of the beloved mascot was created with generous 
support from the larger WPI community and a matching 
gift from Trustee Emeritus Win Priem '59. While the earlier 
trophy remains in play, this noble Goat will stand guard 
over WPI's new Sports and Recreation Center upon its 
completion. 



Possessors of the goat mascot are required to "show" the trophy publicly 
at large gatherings — giving rival classes a chance to snatch it. 



WPI's mascot has taken many 
forms, from bronze trophy to 
the costumed mascot who leads 
cheers at sports events. 




52 Transformations | Spring 2011 




s/ 



The "Proud Goat" statue, temporarily installed at the Bartlett 
Center, is a 600-pound bronze sculpture by Robert Shure. 
It was a senior gift from the Class of 2009. 






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what is the next great problem that win be solved? A 





It may be the world's critical need for clean water, a problem currently being examined by Jeanine Plummer, the 
Alena and David Schwaber '65 Professor of Environmental Engineering, and her students. Plummer helped Karalee 
Conover '11, Carrie Ellsworth '11, and Victoria Mason '11 pursue their Major Qualifying Project in Ghana. The 
students assisted Karen Kosinski 02 with her doctoral research on Schistosoma haematobium — a parasite second 
only to malaria in its devastating impact on millions of people throughout the world. They built a filtration system 
and developed an education program to help prevent Schistosoma infections. 

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